A 19-year-old has become the first person arrested and charged with destroy/damage property, riot and affray for his role in the Wakeley riots.
19-year-old Dani Mansour was granted bail after appearing at Blacktown local court on Thursday.
Mansour is alleged to have been part of the mob that attacked police after bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church.
Mansour was granted strict bail conditions at Blacktown Local Court.
He cannot use social media and must present his phone to police once a week. He also cannot contact anyone involved in the riot, can only travel to and from work, cannot enter Wakeley, cannot attend the church, and must report to police every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The 19-year-old allegedly filmed himself smashing two police vehicles and taking part in the riot, posting the footage to his Instagram page.
He told the court he is a barber who works in Mt Druitt, and is the sole income earner for his family.
Prosecutors argued Mansour could re-offend and posed a risk to community safety.
Police claimed the riot caused damage to 94 police vehicles and 26 officers were injured.
Investigations were ongoing through a review of social media footage. It was suggested that the defendant’s release and potential communication with co-offenders could affect the investigation.
Magistrate Aaron Tang, however, granted Mansour bail. He said that concerns for community safety and any chance of reoffending were mitigated by the proposed bail conditions.
He said rioters wanted to enact “vigilante justice” on the alleged attacker being held in the church and labeled their actions reprehensible. He went in to say, “There is no place for vigilante justice in our society. Whilst the court acknowledges the traumatic impact of the stabbing of the bishop on the church community, those involved in the riot acted reprehensibly. The actions of the alleged rioters were at odds with helping the bishop and of the tenets of Christian faith.”
Earlier on Thursday, the NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, urged community members to help police identify some of the rioters after she revealed some of them wore masks during the violence.
“People in the community know who they are, their families know who they are, and we need to know who they are…We have some people that have jumped on multiple police cars. One individual has a very distinctive tattoo on the torso of a face, while he has cowardly hid his own face.”
Webb said 42 detectives were working to identify 50 people from the 2,000 that were present.
Section 195 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) sets out the definition of destroy or damage property as intentionally or recklessly destroying or damaging the property of another person. This offence is also known as ‘malicious damage to property’.
The maximum penalty for destroy or damage property is a term of imprisonment of 5 years. If the offence was committed while in the company of another person, the maximum penalty becomes 6 years imprisonment.
If heard in the Local Court and:
- the value of the property damaged is less than $5000, the maximum penalty is 12 months imprisonment and/or a fine of $5,500. Where the value is less than $2000, the maximum fine is up to $2,200;
- the value of the property damaged is more than $5000, the maximum penalty is 2 years imprisonment.
If heard in the District Court and the damage or destruction is caused by fire or explosives, the maximum penalty is increased to 10 years imprisonment. If the offense was committed while in the company of another person, the maximum penalty becomes 11 years imprisonment.