Joshua Taranto pleads guilty to threatening children’s play centre Rush HW Rowville workers in heated altercation
A father-of-four has been kicked out of a children’s play centre in Melbourne’s southeast after a viciously abusing two staff members over a table of leftover food.
South East
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A father-of-four has been kicked out of a southeastern children’s play centre after a tirade of verbal abuse towards two female workers, calling them “f---ing lesbians”.
Joshua Taranto, 40, pleaded guilty at the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to two counts of using threatening words, after an altercation with two children’s play centre workers.
The court heard Taranto had attended Rush HQ in Rowville on May 18 last year with two of his children.
While sitting at a table with a previous patron’s food scraps on it, Taranto was approached by a worker.
The court heard the worker asked Taranto to dispose of the scraps, as it was a food prohibited area.
After he refused multiple times, the conversation escalated and he became “aggressive”.
As Taranto screamed at the first female staff member, a manager joined the conversation, attempting to de-escalate it.
Taranto continued acting aggressively, verbally abusing both workers, calling them “f---ing rats”.
In statements later made to police, the workers said Taranto had “gotten in their faces” and “made headbutting gestures” towards them.
One of the staff members said she was “very scared”.
“He kept yelling and screaming at me,” the court heard.
“He called me a fat f---ing lesbian, he kept barking at me.”
As he was being removed from the building, Taranto continued his trade of verbal abuse, saying “I know what you look like” and “watch your back”.
After he was removed from the centre, he went on to send multiple abusive emails to the staff, threatening to return to the centre and “fight” them.
Taranto later told cops the staff members “went crazy … and started coming at (him), pushing (him)”.
“It was psychotic behaviour,” he said.
“They were very aggressive, it’s such aggressive behaviour.”
On Tuesday, Magistrate William Parker said the scene of the incident being a child’s play centre made “the situation even worse”.
“To go from zero to a hundred in front of children in a private space where you’re being asked to leave is atrocious,” he said.
“Regardless of people just working and trying to do their jobs.”
Taranto was fined $1000 with conviction.
