Nun Ceu: ABZ-36 gang leader sentenced for Mooroolbark incidents

The self-proclaimed leader of an outer east youth gang has learnt his fate in court over his latest offences, which included attacking a disabled man at a railway station.

Nun Ceu and an associate smashed a window and etched the tag 'ABZ' at the Mooroolbark Heights Recreation Reserve on May 27, 2022. Picture: Kiel Egging.

A Croydon gang leader who attacked a person on a mobility scooter at a railway station, smashed a footy club’s windows and threatened another man with a machete will stay behind bars.

Nun Ceu, 20, was sentenced in the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on July 12 after he pleaded guilty following a sentence indication from Magistrate Jan Maclean over incidents in Croydon and Mooroolbark in May.

Ceu, 20, had been previously denied bail over the offences when he faced the court for a hearing on June 2.

It was in that hearing that Ceu was described as the leader of youth gang ABZ-36, which had been operating in parts of Melbourne’s outer east.

He dialled into Tuesday’s hearing from custody where he was recovering from Covid, and was joined on the call by other specialists from his support teams.

The prosecution recapped Ceu’s offending which began with an incident at Croydon railway station about 11.30pm on May 21, when he and two associates approached a man on a mobility scooter, and asked if he had any drugs on him.

Ceu then slapped the man twice in the face, and he and his associates then followed and laughed at the man as he made his way down the platform and screamed for help from PSOs.

The trio were eventually interviewed by officers at Croydon police station and released pending summons.

On May 27 Ceu and an associate smashed a window at the front of Mooroolbark Football Club’s building, and inscribed the words ‘ABZ’ and ‘ABZ-36’ with their weapons.

Later that night, the duo confronted a man on nearby Shakespeare Ave, who had noticed them near his car and asked them to move away.

Ceu and his associate got their machetes out, chased the man to his front doorstep and threatened him with the weapons, including holding one above his head after he slipped over, before he got back inside.

Officers found the duo a short time later back at Mooroolbark Recreation Reserve and arrested them, and seized a machete found at their feet.

Ceu’s defence lawyer, Jacqui Hession, said in her submission her client was subjected to a “very traumatic upbringing”, fleeing Myanmar with his family as refugees and arriving in Australia in 2010.

Ms Hession said her client he was at a stage where “meaningful rehabilitation can be made”.

But Ms Maclean described Ceu’s offending as “serious”, “violent” and “significantly intimidating”, particularly towards the victim of the railway station attack, who she said was “targeted and treated in an appalling matter”.

“The community must expect the court to denounce that type of violent offending, and the court is,” she said.

Ms Maclean sentenced Ceu to three months’ jail for the Mooroolbark incidents, including 41 days already served.