By Perry Duffin and Sally Rawsthorne
More than 200 people have been rounded up and charged in a police blitz on the city’s transport networks after women, the elderly and teenagers were allegedly attacked by violent strangers.
NSW Police launched Operation Waratah last month, hoping to find people suspected of 16 particularly troubling attacks over the past year.
NSW Police arrest a man at Hassall Grove over public transport offences last month.Credit: NSW Police
They included a man accused of exposing himself on the train at Town Hall, a woman dragged towards tracks at Fairfield and a man who allegedly punched a bus driver in the back of the head without provocation.
Superintendent Andrew Evans, a police transport commander in charge of the city’s north-west, vowed to crack down on violent attacks on “our most vulnerable passengers” in broad daylight, in peak hour or late at night.
Two weeks on, his squads have arrested 227 people across the city and laid 406 charges for domestic violence, assault, theft, sexual touching, and drug and weapon offences.
Among those apprehended were a man who allegedly punched the driver of a moving bus, a 33-year-old who allegedly punched a stranger in the head and threw his belongings out of the train, and a man armed with a knife chasing another man on the train.
Investigators also charged a man and a woman over an alleged assault that left a teen schoolgirl with a torn earlobe, extraditing the man from Queensland to appear before a NSW court last week.
The 227 arrested were picked up by police in homes, at train stations and in public.
Police also seized shotgun ammunition, 23 knives, and drugs including methylamphetamine, cocaine and other illicit substances. Arrest vision shows police also confiscated two legs of lamb.
Police staged a two-week crackdown targeting attacks on Sydney’s public transport network.Credit: NSW Police
NSW Police Transport Commander Assistant Commissioner Stephen Hegarty said the operation had made Sydney significantly safer.
“I am incredibly proud of the officers involved in this operation. They … have brought some peace of mind to the many victims of these alleged offenders,” he said.
“This is the first Operation Waratah, but it won’t be the last. We intend to use the full power of the NSW Police to continue to crack down on violent crimes across our public transport network.”
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