Geraldton teens involved in Rangeway riot placed on good behaviour bonds

A Geraldton court has placed two teens on good behaviour bonds after they admitted to taking part in a riot outside their home last month. Police charged 18 people with various offences for the incident, which is alleged to have started on a Rangeway street after an argument broke out between two feuding families on December 27. Geraldton Magistrates Court has been told the incident was captured on police body-worn cameras, which shows people throwing bricks, rocks, golf clubs, milk crates and other items at each other. More than 100 onlookers were also at the scene. Defence counsel Xavier Sellathambu said his 17-year-old client was not one of the instigators of the riot, but the teen accepted he had started throwing rocks after the violence started outside a family member’s home. “It was a case of trouble coming to him, rather than him going to the trouble,” he said. Magistrate Angus Hockton told the teenager many were in “a lot of trouble” because of their involvement in the riot, but agreed there had been a “defensive element” to his behaviour at the time. He placed the young man on a $300 good behaviour bond for four months. Mr Hockton handed the same sentence to a 15-year-old who also pleaded guilty to taking part in the riot. Mr Sellathambu said the boy was in a similar position to the 17-year-old in that he was not a “principal player” in the incident. The younger teen admitted to arming himself with rocks, but he was not seen throwing anything on the footage of the incident.