174 weapons, 400 people charged as result of Gold Coast police wanding trial
Police have seized scores of weapons – including knives, tomahawks and even a gun – in the more than year-long trial of hand held metal detectors.
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Handheld metal detectors are saving lives on the Gold Coast, one of the city’s top cops has claimed.
Police have seized scores of weapons – including knives, tomahawks, pruning shears, knuckle dusters and a gun – in the more than year-long trial of hand held metal detectors in Surfers Paradise.
The ‘wanding’ trial – which allows police to use hand held metal detectors to search people in the Surfers Paradise Safe Night Precinct – began in April last year.
Gold Coast Police crime services Superintendent Geoff Sheldon said as at June 30 more than 14,000 people – including 3800 juveniles – had been searched and 174 weapons found.
Police had charged 400 people with more than 570 weapons, drugs and other related charges.
“It’s another tool in the fight,” Supt Sheldon said.
“We are getting on the front foot and preventing these things. You can’t tell me with the numbers we are getting that we haven’t saved some lives.”
The wanding trial started in April last year after campaigning from Brett and Belinda Beasley who lost their son 17-year-old Jack Beasley after he was fatally stabbed in Surfers Paradise on December 13, 2019.
Last week three men were acquitted in the Supreme Court in Brisbane of manslaughter charges, with the court finding they did not have any criminal responsibility for the unexpected, fatal, knife violence of their companion.
The court found that the three acquitted could not be held criminal responsible for the “unexpected, fatal, knife violence” of their companions, also finding that the three acquitted did not share in the plan of the then-15-year old member of the group’s action to stab the victims.
A teen – who was 15 – a the time has pleaded guilty murder and a second teen – who was 17 at the time of Jack’s death – has pleaded guilty o manslaughter.
Supt Sheldon said police were still finding weapons on people but the frequency had started to drop off as peopled learned they would be caught.
He said there was a common thread when people were asked why they were carrying a knife.
“It’s always just to protect myself,” he said.
“It’s the proverbial self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Gatenby Criminal Lawyers director Michael Gatenby said there was a “very alarming” number of juveniles being charged with knife related crimes. He is representing four people charged with stabbing murders on the Gold Coast.
“I genuinely get the impression that they don’t actually know why they’ve got a knife and I get the impression they don’t think they’re going to use it,” he said.
“And when they do pull it out, they don’t realise what they’re going to do with it.
“It’s very alarming. And that’s the problem these that you’ve got young, largely males, that don’t think properly, doing or arming themselves with something that can cause another person to lose their life.”
Mr Gatenby said he had represented children as young as 15 for carrying a knife.
“The overarching view that you get is that they didn’t actually think that they were going to cause someone’s death,” he said.
“And the person that’s been killed, it’s obviously a massive tragedy for their family, and I don’t want to diminish that, but you’ve equally got a young person that’s got that hanging over their head for the rest of their life.
“You’ve got a family that are questioning ‘how did our child do this?’”
Mr Gatenby also represented one of the three men acquitted of any criminal responsibility for the death for Jack Beasley.
Mr Gatenby’s client was 16 at the time of the stabbing.
Outside of court Mr Gatenby said it had an “immeasurable” affect on his client and his family.
“They were young and it’s a tragic accident,” he said.
“Hopefully if anything comes out of this it is that young people stop using knives in Surfers Paradise.”
Jack was one of four people who died in fatal stabbings on the Gold Coast in 18 months in 2019 and 2020.
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