A young man will spend the next year locked up over a mass brawl during which a mob of youths attacked a boy on Manly’s waterfront.
During dinner service on January 6, Royce Jensen spat at a diner who tried to keep him and about 40 other troublemakers out of a restaurant into which they had chased a boy.
Police arrive at the scene to disperse the crowd outside Manly Wharf.Credit: Manly Observer
A hero couple had hauled the boy into Fratelli Fresh restaurant after watching him being attacked by the mob.
Nine’s chief executive, Matt Stanton, was one of several people who were spat at as they braced the door and stopped the youths from pushing their way into the venue.
Downing Centre Local Court heard 21-year-old Jensen did not assault the boy but joined the mob in chasing him and spat at a woman’s chest as he tried to barge through the restaurant door.
Jensen, who pleaded guilty to affray and common assault, was one of three people charged over the incident.
Matt Stanton (in striped shirt) was spat at while holding the door. Royce Jensen spat at a separate diner.Credit: NSW Police
The Central Coast man was jailed for two years with a non-parole period of 14 months late on Thursday.
Sentencing Jensen, magistrate Hugh Donnelly said his and the wider group’s behaviour “created an unsafe environment and reasonable level of fear to the public as families fled the location and left meals behind”.
“Members of the public have been spat on, and it seems the defendant was one of them who did the spitting,” Donnelly said.
Jensen’s two-year jail term encompassed the Manly offences as well as a string of separate crimes, including assaulting someone on a Sydney train, setting a bin alight in Redfern and hitting a car with a baseball bat.
About 40 people were involved in the incident during which police found a knife.Credit: Manly Observer
The court heard he was serving two intensive correction orders and three community correction orders at the time of the Manly incident.
His role at Manly, his Legal Aid lawyer told the court, was “impulsive” and “generally opportunistic”.
“I’m told he was not involved in the original commotion but saw people on the street [and] followed along to see what was happening,” she said.
“A person involved pushed Mr Jensen, and he retaliated by spitting on them.”
Donnelly asked: “So you’re saying he just happened to be in Manly at the time and joined the group?”
The Legal Aid lawyer responded: “Yes, that’s my instructions.”
Police prosecutor Victoria Smith told the court Jensen spat on “a random woman as she was trying to block the entrance of Fratelli Fresh”, adding the public needed protection from him due to his history of committing affray.
The court heard Jensen, an Indigenous man, had a difficult upbringing as he was thrust into a life of drugs and violence after being kicked out of home at the age of 15.
Donnelly took this disadvantage into account but described Jensen as being “well entrenched in the affray”.
A third charge of rioting was earlier withdrawn.
A 15-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was also charged over the brawl alongside 18-year-old Emillio Martinez. Martinez pleaded guilty to affray and not guilty to rioting and will next face court on May 7.
They were charged under Strike Force Crookhaven, which was set up to investigate the incident.
Stanton earlier told the Herald he was dining with his wife at a restaurant when he heard a crowd roaring down the street outside.
Stanton described his decision to brace the door as “a natural instinct”.
“Probably a stupid instinct, as my wife told me afterward,” he said.
Members of the group twice spat in Stanton’s face as they tried to menace him into moving out of the way.
Others pushed him and yelled out, ordering him to open the door.
Jensen will be eligible for parole on March 15, 2026.
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