Abel Sorzor pleads guilty to charges related to wild Northland Shopping Centre machete brawl at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court

A racial slur allegedly sparked a manic machete brawl between rival groups at Northland Shopping Centre, forcing the centre into lockdown

A racial slur allegedly triggered a terrifying brawl — involving machetes — between rival groups at Northland Shopping Centre which forced the mall into lockdown, a court has heard.

Abel Sorzor, 19, from Thornhill Park, pleaded guilty to affray, weapon and bail offences at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

He appeared via video link from custody, where he has spent 49 days.

On May 25 Sorzor was with three other youths when they encountered a rival group near a toilet block at the Northland Shopping Centre about 2.30pm when an argument broke out

According to court documents, it was unclear whether the two groups had organised to meet or had come across each other by chance.

The groups allegedly moved to an outdoor dining area before violence erupted in a nearby alleyway.

Police allege the groups started pushing and punching each other before Sorzor’s group pulled out machetes hidden in their pants and began slashing.

A racial slur was allegedly behind the brawl at Northland Shopping Centre last month. Picture: Seven News

One of Sorzor’s co-accused allegedly turned and slashed his pursuer in the head with a machete, leaving a deep gash and a possibly fractured skull.

That co-accused was then tripped by a member of the public and allegedly set upon by the rival group, whose members punched and kicked him in the head.

A man allegedly holds a machete during the brawl at Northland Shopping Centre Picture: 7News

Shoppers then restrained him until police arrived, while the alleged attackers were escorted by security outside the shopping centre.

Another member of Mr Sorzor’s group allegedly fled on foot before he returned and was arrested while the rest of the group — still armed with machetes — allegedly fled in a vehicle.

Northland Shopping Centre was plunged into lockdown after an alleged brawl broke out Picture: Facebook/Vijay Raj

On Tuesday, Sorzor’s defence lawyer said a racial slur had triggered the brawl and his client’s reaction.

“He is not a member of a gang. There is no excuse for his behaviour in any civil society … on the day he was going about his day (when) he was called a racial slur,” he said.

“There was a slap after there was an insult, and it was escalated (and) there was a weapon.”

But Magistrate John Bentley questioned why Sorzor carried a weapon with him while inside the mall.

“They were going about their business with weapons? They were looking for trouble,” he said.

Mr Bentley queried as to where Sorzor had picked up the machete and if he “walked around the streets with weapons.”

“I don’t understand why a person will go to the shopping centre on a Sunday armed with weapons with so many people around … the weapons are horrid,” he said.

His lawyer said Sorzor was “paranoid” and needed the machete for self-defence — a claim rejected by Mr Bentley who said: “a sword wasn’t a weapon for self defence”.

Sorzor will be assessed for a community corrections order and return to court next week.