Hutt St outrage: Three men arrested as Bici cafe owners consider closing down amid escalating drug-fuelled violence

THREE men have been arrested over a violent confrontation at a Hutt St cafe this week — on the same day that The Advertiser revealed the owners were considering shutting down due to escalating drug-fuelled violence in the area.

• SPECIAL REPORT: How Hutt St is dividing the city
• Alex Antic: Hutt St solution being stifled by political correctness
• Urgent calls to boost SA’s thin ice funding as scourge worsens
• Adelaide now nation’s ice capital
• Horrifying reasons behind ice user’s murder spree

THREE men have been arrested over a violent confrontation at a Hutt St cafe this week — on the same day that The Advertiser revealed the owners were considering shutting down due to escalating drug-fuelled violence in the area.

Bici Cafe owner Toni Leverink joined calls to hire private security as an interim measure before Adelaide City Council installs five CCTV cameras in the area.

She said two men she believed to be under the influence of drugs harassed and spat at her and her husband outside the cafe about 1pm on Wednesday.

On Friday afternoon, police announced three men — a 45-year-old from Thebarton, a 34-year-old from Gilles Plains and a 32-year-old of no fixed address — had been arrested and charged with violent disorder over the incident.

The arresting team included officers from the State Tactical Response Group, a police division tasked with maintaining order in public locations.

The cafe’s CCTV cameras captured one of the men who started picking up glass water bottles on customers’ tables on the footpath and drinking them, while the other was carrying used plates back into the shop.

Bici cafe owner Toni Leverink said she was threatened and verbally abused outside her cafe, which was becoming a regular occurrence. Photo Naomi Jellicoe

“I told them to move along and he spat water on the ground and yelled,” Mrs Leverink said.

“He got the devil’s eyes, angry and bloodshot ... he threatened to come back.

“Unbeknown to me at the time, my husband saw what happened and came to ask the man to leave, (the man) then spat in his (husband) face.”

The man turned to leave but doubled back and hurled more verbal abuse at the male cafe owner.

He was then escorted away from the premises by a woman before police arrived.

The CCTV and assistance from the local community helped police identify and arrest the alleged culprits.

Mrs Leverink said the five-minute incident was the latest in a long string of violent events at their cafe since they opened five years ago.

“I’m a nervous wreck, it’s not safe and I have to fear for my customers, I worry he’s going to hit somebody,” she said.

“It’s not the homeless but people who were on drugs. I just want the violence to stop, I don’t want (Hutt St Centre) to move away.”

Hutt St Centre chief executive Ian Cox — the centre helps feed and house homeless people in the city. Picture: Tait Schmaal

Hutt St Centre chief executive Ian Cox told ABC Radio Adelaide that he wants the state government to facilitate discussion between all stakeholders.

“Everyone is coming up with solutions but no one is sitting down together, which is frustrating,” he said.

Mr Cox said the centre’s data does not show a spike in anti-social behaviour around Hutt St.

“But we know that people are making calls through to SAPOL so we’re not ignorant of that fact as well,” he said.

“We are seeing a large spike in numbers of people coming through and that’s consistent with what we’ve seen around the state and nationally ... there has been a 14 per cent increase in homelessness nationally.”

Safety amid spiralling anti-social behaviour and allegations of substance abuse have become heated debate between Hutt St traders for the past seven months.

Adelaide city councillor Anne Moran wants private security hired in a bid to battle escalating drug- and alcohol-fuelled violence on the southern end of Hutt St.

The council will install five CCTV cameras, which will be monitored by police, in the next two months.

But Ms Moran is proposing to take the “unprecedented step” of hiring security guards before the $305,000 CCTV cameras are installed.

“It is shocking, the situation there is absolutely chronic,” she said.

“It’s not a palatable solution but this street needs a circuit breaker immediately.

“We have extra police (patrols), extra alert, but the situation is continuing to get worse.”

She said the area has become “a magnet for ice dealing”.

“The ice explosion changes the relationship between the Hutt St Centre and the community,” she said.