Brayden Johnston: Caringbah teen sentenced for property damage, trespassing

A teen high on Christmas spirit went on a drunken trip through a retirement village where he ripped out a herb garden, smashed a car window before climbing the roof of a flower shop roof.

A teen high on Christmas spirit went on a drunken trip through a retirement village in which he ripped out a small herb garden and climbed a flower shop roof.

After an end of year work cruise Caringbah man Brayden Johnston, 18, found himself wandering around Woolooware Shores Anglican retirement village.
His resultant misbehaviour saw him charged with intentionally or recklessly destroy/damage property and two counts of unlawful entry of enclosed lands.

Caringbah teen Brayden Johnston.

The court heard the blind drunk teen woke residents up by yelling and banging on the pool gate before finding a trolley containing a small herb garden.

Johnston quickly disposed of the herb garden before taking the trolley for a joy ride around the retirement village.

The teenager then threw the trolley at the back windshield of a parked Hyundai i30, shattering the glass.

Police then saw Johnston and chased the teenager, who fled the retirement village and jumped the fence of a Flower Power garden centre.

Johnston proceeded to climb on top of the store’s roof where police had him surrounded.

His antics came to an abrupt halt when he tried to escape over a fence and was apprehended in the car park.

Johnston appeared in Sutherland Local Court before magistrate Philip Stewart on Thursday and pleaded guilty to all three charges.

Mr Stewart was perplexed by the teen’s behaviour.

“How could anyone explain going into an old person’s home at night, picking up a trolley and throwing it into a car window,” he said.

“Surely he drank so much his brain could do nothing but keep him alive.”
Johnston, who told the court he had no memory of the incident, agreed with Mr Stewart that given a choice, future employers would rather hire someone who hadn’t destroyed property in a retirement village.

“This has been a life altering process,” Johnston said.

Mr Stewart acknowledged the role that Johnston’s excessive alcohol consumption played and said, when a person is that drunk “the brain functions to keep the body alive and the mind just goes crazy”.

The magistrate took into account Johnston’s parents were in conversations to pay for the damage done to the parked car.

 The court heard the behaviour was out of character for the young apprentice who received a fine and was not convicted.

Before exiting Johnston addressed the court “you will probably never see me again.”