Noel Riely Colin King-Stewart, Caleb Day and Drew Speeding plead guilty to affray at Ballina Local Court

A North Coast travel centre erupted into a melee involving flying fists and chairs used as missiles- all over a stolen McDonald’s meal. Here’s how a court dealt with three offenders.

Caleb Day, 19, Noel King-Stewart, 21, and Drew Speeding, 19 pleaded guilty to affray after the Ballina travel centre brawl.

A trio of young Lismore men became involved in a violent brawl over a stolen McDonald’s meal inside BP Ballina Travel Centre.

Noel Riely Colin King-Stewart, 21, Caleb Day, 19 and Drew Speeding, 19, pleaded guilty at Ballina Local Court on Thursday to affray.

The court heard King-Stewart was eating McDonalds with friends when an argument began with a man in another group about 3pm on February 19.

The man approached and took King-Stewarts’ food off the table.

King-Stewart stood up and threw punches at the Macca’s snatcher, who then ventured out to the car park and returned with another fellow, who began throwing punches at King-Stewart.

Day and Speeding became involved and a brawl broke out.

“At times the accused were punching the other group all at once,” police documents state.

Drew Speeding, 19, and Noel King-Stewart, 21, outside outside Ballina Courthouse.

Day threw a chair and a member of the opposing group hurled it back during the chaos.

The travel centre was busy on the Sunday, with families and children present.

“Families were trying to remove their children from the area to protect them from potential injury and shield them from seeing violence,” the documents state.

“The accused were actively involved and were not merely acting in self-defence.”.

King-Stewart, Day and Speeding drove off, but were arrested a few days later and taken to Lismore Police Station to be charged.

A police prosecutor told the court the frantic incident lasted about a minute, which was fairly drawn out considering the violence.

The BP Ballina Travel Centre. Picture: Tessa Flemming

“The businesses at the Ballina Travel Centre will also lose income as the customers who were there will unlikely return out of fear for their safety,” they said.

Defence lawyer Gemma Campagna told the court the trio were remorseful.

“They know they should have stepped away and not been involved,” she said.

Ms Campagna pointed out King-Stewart had his meal taken, sparking the brawl.

She said King-Stewart came before the court with his criminal history including alcohol-related offending after a disadvantaged childhood.

Ms Campagna said King-Stewart had gained “insight that alcohol causes these behaviours and because of this he isn’t drinking as much, only every so often”.

Magistrate Karen Stafford said the brawl happened in an enclosed space and the public was put at great risk.

“It’s one thing throwing punches at each other - when chairs are being thrown who knows where they are going to land,” she said.

The BP Ballina Travel Centre. Picture: Tessa Flemming

“Parents try to protect their children from violence by preventing them from watching violence on TV, but to have it happen in real life, it would have been shocking for those who have never experienced violence before.”

Ms Stafford told the court King-Stewart was more involved in offending and only four weeks into a community corrections order for property damage.

“You should be supervised because there’s more than three times you’ve acted in a violent or threatening way… you’re still a very young man and the last thing you want is to be a young man in an adult prison,” she said.

King-Stewart was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order with 100 hours of community service and psychological treatment.

Day and Speeding appeared with no previous criminal history and no convictions were recorded.

Ms Stafford sentenced them to two-year community release orders and described their future prospects as excellent.