Jarin Towney: Former child star convicted for string of crimes in Sydney
Once nominated for an ASTRA Award and touted as a rising star in Australian acting circles, a former child actor has now been labelled a ‘tax’ on the community in court.
Central Sydney
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Child actor Jarin Towney hit the big time in 2016 when he landed a role in Mel Gibson’s Hollywood blockbuster Hacksaw Ridge.
Just four years later his acting career is over and a court has heard how he has become a “tax on the community” as he was convicted for a string of petty crimes in Sydney’s inner city and inner west.
Towney, 21, was issued $1600 in fines at Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday for charges including offensive behaviour, hindering police, trespassing and two counts of damaging property.
The court heard how police came across him standing in a Wattle St, Ultimo garden bed, urinating at 11.30pm on April 17.
He ran away and lead officers on a “merry dance” to the tram station at Wentworth Park.
Agreed facts state he then scaled a barbed wire fence and fled into an RMS owned site on Pyrmont Bridge Rd, where he climbed onto a building in an attempt to evade police.
The roof collapsed, causing significant damage to the building.
When eventually caught, he admitted to swallowing valium and cocaine telling police: “I took it all and started running away from you.”
A month before on February 16, Towney kicked in two car doors following a party on Fernhill St, Hurlstone Park.
He had taken cocaine before the police arrived on the scene about 5.10am, the court heard.
Towney is no longer the baby-faced youth seen in beloved Australian TV programs Underbelly and Packed to the Rafters and appeared in court with a Roman numeral tattoo visible on the back of his neck.
Once touted as a rising star, in 2015 he received an ASTRA Award nomination for most outstanding new talent for his scene-stealing role as schoolboy Elliott Darcy in thriller television series Devil’s Playground.
Now Towney works as a labourer on construction sites and lives at home with his parents in Surry Hills, the court heard.
Magistrate Jennifer Giles told the young man he had become a “nuisance” to the public and that police had “better things to do” than chase him across Sydney.
“The community is starting to run out of patience with you as we try to clean up after you,” she said.
At the time of the offences Towney was on an intensive corrections order for unrelated matters, the court heard.
A 12-month community corrections order was imposed on him for the malicious damage charges.