Ex-Storm junior Kingdom Kidwell sentenced for attempted Sunshine North home invasion

An ex-Melbourne Storm junior who attempted to raid a Sunshine North home team-handed with a rifle has been put in the sin bin.

Former Melbourne Storm junior player Kingdom Kidwell pleads guilty to attempted aggravated home invasion. Facebook.

A former Melbourne Storm junior player caught trying to commit a home invasion with a group of his thug family members has avoided further jail time.

Kingdom Kidwell, 24, was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday to time served – 33 days – after pleading guilty to charges including attempted aggravated home invasion.

The Deer Park man was working with three relatives, a fellow former junior Melbourne Storm player and an unknown man, when the group tried to break into a Sunshine North home after 5am on August 19 last year.

The court heard two victims were inside the single-storey house when the group pulled up outside it in a stolen car, being driven by Timoteo Timoteo, 25, about 5am.

Elia Manusina, 23, who the court heard also played for Melbourne Storm as a junior development player, climbed over the property’s 1.5m fence and tried to break open the house’s front door with a crowbar.

Teremi Tua, 18, and Kidwell, who was carrying a baseball bat, then also jumped the fence.

At the same time, a police van drove past and the officers saw Te Whata Whelan, 20, on the naturestrip with a torch and a crowbar.

The police put on the van’s red and blue lights and got out of the van and the group started to flee, with all managing to climb into the car and get away.

The officers chased the car through Sunshine, with a police dog squad unit also coming across the speeding car before it crashed into a sign on Wright St.

The group tried to flee on foot but five of them were tracked down by the various cops.

A police dog found Tua and Whelan hiding in a driveway and left them both bitten and injured.

Police then found a loaded .22 sawn off rifle, face masks and more than a gallon of petrol in a container in the car.

Timoteo was sentenced to 18 months’ jail with a minimum of 10 months’ jail after serving 285 days on remand.

Manusina was sentenced to the 285 days’ he’d already served and placed onto an 18-month community correction order.

Both Tua and Whelan were placed on two-year community correction orders with 180 hours’ community work each.

Kidwell was also handed a two-year community correction order with 180 hours of unpaid work

All men were banned from contacting each other while serving their orders.

Magistrate Hayley Bate said they all bore equal responsibility for the very serious offending, which had left the victims significantly psychologically harmed.

The court heard Kidwell, Tua, Timoteo and Whelan were all related, with Kidwell being Tua’s uncle.

All men had criminal records except for Whelan and Tua.

It was heard all the men belonged to the Samoan community in Melbourne’s west.

Kidwell’s lawyer said the rugby enthusiast, who was now a steel fixer, played for Melbourne Storm’s elite team from age 16 to 18 before he left the sport for his girlfriend.

The court heard Manusina had also been a junior development player with Melbourne Storm.

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