Sydney teen spotted on CCTV buying weapons on day of arrest
CCTV has been played in court of a teenage boy who allegedly told police “you’re all pigs, look at you, like lambs to the slaughter” easily purchasing knives in a Western Sydney gun shop.
NSW
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CCTV has been played in court of a teenage boy who allegedly told police “you’re all pigs, look at you, like lambs to the slaughter” easily purchasing knives on two separate occasions from a Western Sydney gun shop.
The boy, who told a shop assistant the weapons were to go pig hunting, is one of two teenagers accused of preparing to carry out a terrorist act.
The NSW Supreme Court yesterday heard that after the oldest boy was arrested on October 12, 2016, by police he said to them: “You’re all pigs, look at you like lambs to the slaughter, you’ll all die in hellfire at hands of Allah.
The two schoolboys were aged 16 when they were arrested on 12 October, 2016.
On the day of their arrest at a public Islamic prayer hall, police also seized a backpack containing two bayonets purchased earlier that day, a note allegedly pledging allegiance to Islamic State and camouflage items of clothing.
Video footage captured within the Bankstown Gun Shop was played showing both boys, now aged 17 and 18, entering the shop six days before their arrest.
They walk around looking at things with the younger boy following the older one, who is wearing a blue top and beanie, around. At one point they look at a machete on a rack. The older boy then purchases two knives which were placed into a plastic bag and the pair walk out together.
The court heard the older boy told the sales assistant that day they were going “pig hunting” and needed “pig hunting knives”.
Police have never located these knives, the court heard.
The court heard the person who served them that day asked if they were aged older than 16 years of age before proceeding with the sale.
Six days later, the older boy was captured in video footage wearing a hat and entering the store.
He pays cash for two bayonets in the vision.
“He came in said he was looking for a knife to go hunting …. He decided on the knife. Then he asked for a second one for his friend going away with him. I did the invoice, he paid and put it in a bag and he left the shop,” said casual employee Marino Paronis, who served the boy on October 12.
Mr Paronis said he wasn’t aware that surveillance officers were inside the shop at the time the purchase was being made.
He told the court at some stage during his conversation with the boy he went through the necessary protocol of checking whether he was at least 16 years of age.
The trial also heard from Detective Sergeant Michael O’Brien, of the Terrorism Investigation Squad, who attended the arrest scene of the two boys at a Bankstown Islamic prayer hall.
“I saw a person I believe to be (the older boy) being led down the stairs by a detective and he was shouting, speaking loudly as he was being led down the stairs,” he said.
“He was saying words to the effect of ‘you’re all pigs, look at you, like lambs to the slaughter, you’ll all die in hellfire at hands of Allah.”
“It was said more than once and words to that effect, similar words over and over again”.
Detective Sergeant O’Brien told the court that he walked up to he stairs to meet the police and took hold of the older boy’s arm and walked with them across the carpark.
“He was speaking almost continuously the whole time,” he said.
He said he took the older boy to the other side of the lane and then asked him to sit.
Detective Sergeant O’Brien said the older boy told him he refused saying, “No, I only obey Allah”.
The jury of 12 was also shown the bayonets purchased by the boys and handed them around to inspect them.
The trial before Justice Geoffrey Bellew continues.