Teen involved in vicious eastern suburbs bus driver attack faces court

A 16-year-old who brutally bashed a bus driver after assaulting other passengers has proven to be just as much as a menace in youth detention. Amazingly he’s now free to walk.

The 16-year-old and his mates were involved in a wild brawl after a bus driver asked them to get off for fighting with other passengers, the court heard.

A 16-year-old involved in a brutal attack on an innocent eastern suburbs bus driver will be freed from youth detention within hours.

The boy, who cannot be named to protect his identity, was sentenced earlier today to 77 days’ youth detention by a Children’s Court — equal to time served — rendering him eligible for immediate release.

During an earlier plea hearing on May 25, Senior Constable Sarah Gilderdale told the court the boy and a group of his mates laid into a bus driver after boarding the bus because he asked the rowdy group to get off.

The group had picked a fight with other bus passengers after one group member stole another passenger’s bag, but when the bus driver pulled over and ordered them off, one teen pulled him off the bus too, and the group kicked and punched him while he lay helpless on the ground, Sen-Constable Gilderdale told the court.

The boy, whose lawyer told the court came from a “traumatic” upbringing, had also repeatedly spat at and assaulted youth detention staff during stints in custody, Sen-Constable Gilderdale said.

In one incident in youth detention in December last year the boy lashed out because a youth justice worker told him to stop drawing a Nazi swastika on the television screen using the centre’s PlayStation, she told the court.

In another incident in October he hurled insults and spat in the face of a youth justice worker after they caught him graffitiing a toilet.

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Magistrate Jan Maclean sentenced the boy to time served, saying it was in the community’s best interests the boy be rehabilitated.

But she told the boy’s lawyer she would have him report to her fortnightly for judicial monitoring so she could oversee his progress.

“It’s in the community’s interest that this cycle of offending is addressed … and it’s not going to be addressed by longer and longer periods in custody,” Ms Maclean said.