Man who boasted of graffiti blitz ordered to clean it up
A man who painted Casper the Friendly Ghost graffiti tags across Brisbane after a relationship break-up has been ordered to remove his handiwork.
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A Brisbane magistrate has warned he will make an example of graffiti vandals after ordering a Sunnybank man to spend 80 hours cleaning up his “Casper’’ tags.
The stern dressing down appeared to have worked, with Jessy Owen King-Mayes promising to stop because he didn’t want to go to jail with “murderers, rapists and paedophiles for my paintings’’.
Holland Park Magistrates Court heard King-Mayes, 28, boasted to police that he had tagged “most of Brisbane’’ despite starting his illegal artwork only the previous year.
He even had an Instagram account showcasing his handiwork.
Police prosecutor Lauren Archer said a police patrol spotted King-Mayes jump from a bikepath into a creek bed near a Runcorn park on June 7.
When police searched his backpack they found four cans of spray paint, a silver pen and caps.
He smelled strongly of paint and was carrying blue paint which matched fresh Casper tags, a reference to the cartoon character, on chairs and bridges at the park.
“It’s a wake up call for my client to be here in court,’’ his Legal Aid lawyer told Magistrate Simon Young.
She said King-Mayes, who had no criminal record and pleaded guilty to committing graffiti and possessing a graffiti instrument, was now painting only in his backyard.
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Mr Young said police had offered no evidence to support King-Mayes’ boast that he had tagged “most of Brisbane’’ and so accepted it was a “statement of bravado’’.
“But I’m absolutely sick and tired of people tagging. At some point in the future someone will be made a serious example of,’’ he said.
“While it’s not appropriate to do so in this case, and there’s scope for leniency for you here today, you might only get this chance once.
“This type of behaviour is endemic. Nobody is really listening (to warnings not to graffiti) — I’m sick of it.’’
Mr Young ordered King-Mayes perform 80 hours of community service, to be spent removing graffiti painted by him and others, to be completed in nine months.
No convictions were recorded.
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When asked outside court if he had really tagged most of Brisbane, King-Mayes did not respond.
“I only started when I was 27 after a bad break-up,’’ he said.
“I’m not a dick about it, I would never paint on people’s cars or things like that.’’
He said graffiti artists were a “community’’ of talented people who respected good art.