Two people bashed, home trashed in wild Melbourne house party

Up to 60 young people reportedly of African appearance trashed a house and bashed two people in a wild Melbourne party.

The trashed house with graffiti and smashed windows in Hawthorn East. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

Up to 60 young men and women, described as of African appearance and spruiking gang credentials, extensively damaged a house and bashed two people in a wild party in an exclusive Melbourne suburb.

Police yesterday afternoon swarmed over the Hawthorn East house — believed to be a short-term rental property — where windows were smashed, rubble was seen in the hallway and the tags “Block Boyz” and “Apex” were sprayed on the garage door.

A damaged Mercedes car was also spotted behind police tape in the large Hastings Road house.

A 73-year-old male neighbour and a 16-year-old girl were bashed by young females, police allege.

Neighbours said the man had been leaving for work at 5.30am when the partygoers struck. He suffered head ­injuries and a concussion but is ­believed to have ­gone home yesterday from hospital. The female victim did not sustain serious injuries, police said.

Police set up a new strategy for parties at short-term rentals two months ago after they were criticised for taking too long to break up two other house parties linked to youths of African ­appearance in North Melbourne and Footscray.

But yesterday neighbours said police appeared hesitant to intervene after they were called out three times to the Hawthorn East house between 9.30pm on ­Saturday and 6am yesterday.

“There was about 50 to 60 ­Sudanese youth outside in the street … screaming and yelling and fighting each other,” said a woman who did not want to be identified. “We called the police three times. We reckon everyone in the street called them two or three times. We’ve never seen anything like it.”

The woman’s husband said police arrived at the house several times but ­initially watched from outside. “Maybe they were overwhelmed or under-resourced, but they just watched,” he said. “The final time they turned up, they did bring the dog squad.”

No arrests were made. Police said they did not see any fighting.

The injured neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was leaving for work when he saw several males harassing a woman, so he intervened.

“I got half beaten to death going to work. This is bullshit; this is Australia we’re living in. Not happy Jan,” he told the Herald Sun.

He said he was then set upon by about eight females. “They started kicking me to the ground and punched me in the head. I’m just grateful I wasn’t stabbed,” he said.

Police did not mention the word “African” in their initial press release and a police spokeswoman told The Australian yesterday they had no information identifying any of the partygoers.

In a press conference two hours later, police said they had made significant progress with their investigation but still faced challenges with parties at short-term rentals.

“Police are confronted with a shift in the landscape in terms of rented properties — a lot of properties are going out on short-term leases,” Acting Superintendent Darren Cooper said. “This isn’t a regular occurrence but occasionally we do see this and we take it very seriously.”

It is believed the young revellers were mostly not underage and not from the area. The homeowners are believed to be based overseas and the house has been rented out only a couple of times.

As well as exterior damage to the house and graffiti, there were holes through internal walls, light fittings were removed and furniture wrecked.

Neighbours said they saw “youths of African descent” fighting and said many of them looked like very young girls.

“They were youths of African descent,” the woman said. “And you could hear this one girl screaming and screaming. And some of them looked so small, they were just tiny.”

The woman also said the police appeared to be overwhelmed: “They don’t appear to do anything with these gangs, these kids … I suppose they don’t have the resources. It was terrifying though.’’