How Torin O’Brien is helping troubled Rockhampton kids

A colourful anti-youth crime advocate who once led an angry mob to a young thug’s home has opened his gym and heart to kid car thieves and other young criminals with incredible results.

He made headlines when he led a group of up to 150 angry locals to the homes of alleged teen criminals in protest.

But now Rockhampton’s Torin O’Brien is combating youth crime in a different way.

Mr O’Brien recently started the Snake Pit Youth Program, where at-risk teens can go and be part of his gym while also learning how to turn their lives around, eat better and get into paying work.

While he’s been helping out for several years, he’s ramped up his program following spikes in youth crime.

Torin O'Brien speaking with Rockhampton police during the community rally he led last year.

“Throughout the years I’ve learnt a few things, what works and what doesn’t work, I’ve found some of the best youth workers I’ve worked with in town for the last few years … they’ve branched out to make a bigger difference,” he said.

“What I was doing was I was just funding it myself getting troubled kids in, whether they’re from bad families or good families it didn’t matter it was just how they are that mattered, and as a couple started coming in more and more news started coming in about car theft getting bad … so I just though we need to make this bigger.”

REPLACING ‘THRILLING’ CRIME WITH HEALTHY RUSH

Mr O’Brien said kids participating in the program initially started in a three-month block, with the option to continue for another six months if they stick out the first three.

He said government-run programs were “too short” with some eight-to-ten-week programs “not enough”.

“Another thing no one talks about is adrenaline, if you’re a child stealing cars first of all you’re doing it to hide some horrible pain, you steal a car for the first time and you’ve got adrenaline and that adrenaline takes away all life’s problems, only for a minute but it takes it away, and a lot of these programs are boring,” he said.

“We need to address the adrenaline changes, and there’s healthy ways to get adrenaline and combat sports is one of the best ways to go because it’s thrilling, it’s cool and let’s be real these are 13 to 17 year olds they don’t want to do something boring.

Rockhampton man, Torin O'Brien.

“The kids can be themselves here, they get that adrenaline … a young car thief they will overcome a lot of things they don’t want to deal with just to get that adrenaline.

“A good example is, none of them probably want a big angry guy to run out with a bat and flog them but they will take that risk and overcome it to get that adrenaline. This is sort of the same but the adrenaline they’re getting is in a healthy format and the things they have to overcome are different.

“It’s clean eating, it’s giving up cigarettes and they might not like it at first but they will overcome it because that adrenaline at the end and team culture and acceptance in places like this gets them over the line, that’s why I’ve had so much success over the years.”

A CLEAN START

Mr O’Brien said any young person that goes into his facility is part of the gym like anyone else, not putting a spotlight on why they are there.

“It’s a clean start, they get surrounded by people who are doing well in life but know what they’re going through, and they get guided through,” he said.

“It’s constant reward and constant work, we have one now who is so close to having his first junior paid job in the gym.

“If you take note of the people making a big difference none of them are government supported, there’s some great places now across New South Wales and Queensland where it’s literally just hardened men taking it upon themselves, there’s palaces where youths are learning to build houses for the homeless and going to learn how to fix bikes and keep one at the end as a reward.”

Mr O’Brien said seeing the change in the teenagers was the reason he continues helping them.

“We have a kid, at the moment, that’s been here six months and he’s actually from quite a good family, but there’s all sorts of reasons young men can be troubled,” he said.

“They learn the sport, which is the fun part, the adrenaline part and they get to be cool with the other people around. But this week what I’ve gone through with this particular kid is learning how to set boundaries so you prevent resentment and how to journal what you’re thinking so you can fix those patterns.

A crowd gathered to listen to Torin O'Brien speak about crime in Rockhampton in May 2023.

“Teaching a 16-year-old how to not get angry in the first place, how to set a reasonable boundary and how to react when that boundary is broken, that’s what we really need to be doing. The Muay Thai and the adrenaline, to be honest, that’s their distraction while we do this other serious stuff.”

Initially funding the program himself, Mr O’Brien has had local business Jackowah Concreting come on board as a sponsor of the program.

He’s also been speaking with other in the community about other things he can do and how they can help.

“I think it’s time the public know that there are things happening, non-government programs that are really effective, and if you do have someone and it doesn’t have to be your own child, it could be someone you know or in your family or if you’re a teacher and know that one of your students is on the edge,” he said.

“We want to know about it, there’s no red tape around it, if they fit the bill they’re going to be given a program, they’re worth hundreds of dollars each, and with that program they’re given real guidance.

“Half of our 20 year olds here started as troubled 16-year-olds, and now they’re fit, they’re healthy and they know their healthy foods and they’ve stopped smoking. That’s what my gym is full of, success stories.”

“I’VE BEEN ONE OF THOSE KIDS”

While the program was half born out of the frustration of such things being unavailable, Mr O’Brien is also wanting to be the kind of person for a teenager that he didn’t have growing up.

His troubled past as a teenager is a topic Mr O’Brien isn’t shy to talk about.

But after getting out of trouble himself, he now lives by the motto “be who you needed when you were younger”.

“I care a lot because I’ve been one of these kids, they never get the right help,” he said.

“By the time I was 16 I was homeless, drug addicted and I was a charged car thief, I’d been stabbed multiple times, shot at, I spent more time between the age of 15 and 17 hungry than you can possibly imagine, this was all in West Melbourne in the early 2000s.

“I’ve lived a worse life than any of these kids probably have … so that’s sort of where I get this from.”

Torin O'Brien said while he likely won’t run in the next election, he hadn’t ruled it out completely yet.

Mr O’Brien said he remembered the feeling of frustration of people wanting him to change and “do better” and turn his life around.

He said he felt his life purpose was now to help young people going through what he did.

“No one got it,” he said.

“Where I am at this point, I feel like my life building up to this point has put me into this position where this is my purpose.

“I’m pretty happy and fortunate that I’m in a position where I can help, it’s from a place of understanding because I get it.”

Mr O’Brien said he hadn’t completely ruled out running again in the upcoming State Election in October.

“I’m still considering, what I’m doing here is nothing to do with it,” he said.

“My whole thing of doing this (the youth program) is I’m doing it because I want to do it.

“If I don’t run, and I’m most likely not going to, that changes nothing I’m still doing this … at this point if I choose to do anything else that will effectively take some of my energy away from some of this youth work and that to me is what’s super important.

“If I run and win could I make a difference? Yeah for sure. But could I make a difference without it? I’m already making a difference. At this point I just want to focus on the kids in this town.”