ABZ-36: Alleged Croydon youth gang leader Nun Ceu denied bail

The activities of a youth gang in Croydon have been revealed in court, as its leader was accused of attacking a disabled person at a railway station.

Details of a youth gang roaming Melbourne’s outer east with machetes have been revealed in court, as its leader was accused of attacking a man with cerebral palsy at a railway station.

Croydon’s Nun Ceu, 20, was labelled by police as the “self-confessed creator” and leader of the gang ABZ-36 when he faced Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on June 2.

Mr Ceu, decked out in a Nike hoodie and sweatpants in the courtroom dock, applied for bail after he was arrested over incidents in Croydon and Mooroolbark last month, and his involvement in an affray a day earlier.

In the first incident, the court heard Mr Ceu was with two others when he approached a man with cerebral palsy in a mobility scooter at Croydon railway station on May 21 at 11.30pm.

He allegedly asked the man if he had drugs on him, slapped the man in the face and laughed at him.

The man screamed for help, and four PSOs attended and cautioned Mr Ceu for unlawful assault.

On May 27, Mr Ceu and some offsiders were accused of smashing a window at Mooroolbark Heights Recreation Reserve after drinking alcohol for a few hours.

They were allegedly armed with machetes and engraved the words ‘ABZ’ and ‘ABZ-36’ on the damaged property.

Afterwards, Mr Ceu and the group were heard loitering around cars in Shakespeare Ave, and a male resident went outside to investigate.

Mr Ceu, allegedly armed with a machete in one hand and a bottle of spirits in the other, and another offsider who also had a machete, allegedly threatened the man who then stumbled and raced back inside his home.

The two men then ran back into the reserve before police arrived and arrested them.

Maroondah detective Senior Constable Cameron Shoppe told the court that Mr Ceu was the leader of the gang ABZ-36, short for “Asian Boys 36”.

Sen-Constable Shoppe said the gang consisted of up to 4-20 ”disengaged youths around Maroondah who exercise violence on vulnerable youth” and were ”predominantly of Burmese heritage”.

He said their offending had ranged from street robberies, affrays and public order offences, typically from early Friday evenings until Sunday night.

Police created a special task force to apprehend members of the gang and crack down on further offending in March 2021.

Sen-Constable Shoppe told Magistrate Jan Maclean the gang’s offending “spikes up” when Mr Ceu is not in custody,

A support worker told the court Mr Ceu was trying to reintegrate in the community by recently playing soccer for Croydon Ranges and a visit to Artful Dodgers music studios.

His defence lawyer, Ozgur Celik, also described him as a “vulnerable young adult” who needed to continue a behaviour management program and treatment for alcohol use, which he had just begun.

But Ms Maclean denied Mr Ceu bail as she felt the risk of Mr Ceu further offending in the community as “unarguable”.

Ms Maclean said she had taken into account the mental health issues and vulnerability Mr Ceu was facing, and the efforts and services offered by his support workers and family, which he may have needed to rely on.

“The risk endangering the safety of the community presented by Mr Ceu’s offending and history of this offending is manifestly high, given the circumstances which bring him before the court today and prior interactions with the criminal justice system,” she said.

Mr Ceu will reappear at the court on June 29.