Wakeley riots: Orjuwan Muthanna Nafea ordered to pay almost $30,000 in damages for police vehicles damages

A teenager who hid his face while jumping on police cars has been ordered to pay almost $30,000 in damages after rioting at a southwest Sydney church where an Assyrian Orthodox bishop was stabbed.

Orjuwan Muthanna Nafea (right) and his lawyer Rene Khio outside Fairfield Court.

A teenager who hid his face while jumping on police cars has been ordered to pay almost $30,000 in damages after rioting at a southwest Sydney church where Assyrian Orthodox Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed.

Orjuwan Muthanna Nafea, 19, handed himself into Fairfield police station 11 days after

violent scenes involving 2000 rioters where multiple police were injured erupted outside Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley on April 15.

Nafea, who works as a barber, appeared at Fairfield Court and pleaded guilty to two counts of destroying property during public disorder and riot, as his siblings and parents gathered in the courtroom.

Several attendees including Father Isaac Royel were also injured inside the church on the night and paramedics were forced to into lockdown inside the building.

Orjuwan Muthanna Nafea was sentenced at Fairfield Court.

The teenager stood on the bonnet of one police vehicle where he smashed the front windscreen with his feet before he jumped onto the second police vehicle and caused “significant” damage by stomping on the rear and front windscreens.

Nafea’s lawyer Rene Khio, said his client has completed an anger management course and was “ashamed of his actions and embarrassed to be in this position”.

“This incident was an isolated incident which took place in the heat of the moment and was out of character,” Mr Khio said.

He said his client was entitled to the Ellis Discount – a reduction in his sentencing for disclosing details to authorities – as he “saved police time and resources” by “identifying the cars he had damaged” which made it “easier for police to charge him”.

“Has assisted police in charges against his own self to his own detriment,” Mr Khio said.

The police prosecutor argued NSW Police were seeking $28,877 in damages for the two police vehicles and said Nafea’s “violent behaviour” was “quite concerning”.

“He threw fuel into fire and made the situation so much worse and encouraged others to do worse by his own conduct,” he said.

“SARS (sentencing assessment report) show his acts were stupid and he was persuaded by the conduct of his friends and his conduct would have persuaded others to participate in the riot itself.”

Orjuwan Muthanna Nafea after he was arrested in April. Picture: John Appleyard

He further argued Nafea would have been arrested “sooner rather than later” due to his distinctive tattoos, including one depicting Jesus on his torso.

Magistrate Stuart Devine said it was “deeply difficult” to understand “how a man with a Jesus tattoo could act in such a way”.

“It appears he went there specifically to bring violence to the situation … his offending is abhorrent and is totally insistent with civilised society,” Mr Devine said.

Mr Devine argued Nefea “clearly knew what he was doing” and given one car had “almost $18,000 worth of damages and another just over $11,000” in the context of a riot, there was “no way I wouldn’t deal with matters without recording a conviction”.

Nefea was convicted and sentenced to an intensive corrective order for 12 months and ordered to complete 250 hours of community service.

He was also ordered to pay NSW Police a total of $28,877 in damages.