Teens plead guilty to unlawful entry of defence land to see heart-shaped waterhole

Two Gold Coast youths and their interstate friends have seen their quest for the perfect picture end up with them being hauled in front of a southeast Queensland magistrate.

Tayla Watson, Reid Parsons, Kai Gelastopoulos and Vayda Dainney apologised to the court for entering defence land.

Four young trespassers have pleaded guilty to invading a military area after coming across pictures of the heart-shaped falls on Instagram, despite it being permanently closed in 2017 following a teenager’s drowning.

Gold Coast friends Reid Parson, 22, of Tallai, and Tayla Watson, 24, of Helensvale, alongside Victorian couple Vayda Dainney, 19, and Kai Gelastopoulos, 19, all pleaded guilty to a charge of unauthorised entry on defence premises at Beaudesert Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Killarney Glen. Picture: Bob Fairless

Despite police prosecutor Senior Constable Danielle Hill saying a harsher penalty had been handed down to previous cases to deter youths from trespassing, Magistrate Tracy Mossop dismissed the case because of how young the offenders were, but said the offence would still appear on their criminal histories.

Sen. Const. Hill said the group entered Killarney Glen falls and waterhole, which is located on Department of Defence land at Beechmont, on Saturday June 26 this year.

The court heard police were called to the scene after being notified by surveillance of the trespassers.

They were trying to leave the Department of Defence land to return to their vehicles.

The youths then told police they’d decided it was too cold to swim after all. They told police they’d seen pictures on Instagram of the falls.

Mr Parson told the Magistrate he was the ringleader of the group.

“It was my fault,” he said.

“I was the leader of the group … I took my friends with me.

“I’m very sorry.”

Magistrate Tracy Mossop said she commended Mr Parson for owning up to his actions.

Miss Watson, the oldest of the trespassing youths, said she wanted to apologise.

“We could all see that it was closed off but we still went anyway so yeah I’m sorry,” she said.

Miss Dainney also apologised, saying she definitely wouldn’t be doing it again.

Mr Gelastopoulos said he was sorry, and that it was a ‘reckless decision’.

Mossop said because none of the offenders had any previous criminal history and they were all 24 or younger, no conviction would be recorded.

Ms Mossop told the court if anyone had an issue with the closure of the waterfall, they’d be better off taking it up with their local member, instead of trespassing and risking criminal charges and court appearances.