A gang of teenagers who were arrested after injuring 19 people in a rampage through an Australian high school with baseball bats and machetes have treated the attack as a joke while in custody, police said yesterday.
Five boys aged between 14 and 16 were charged with a total of 101 offenses, including assault and causing malicious damage, after police arrested them at gunpoint to end Monday’s raid on the Merrylands High School in suburban Sydney.
At a brief hearing yesterday at Parramatta Children’s Court, police asked that the suspects — all minors under Australian law — be held in jail until a further hearing.
None of the five appeared in court. Nor did they enter a plea or make applications for bail.
They were remanded in custody until May 22.
Police handed documents to the court arguing why each of the teenagers should not be set free on bail.
“The young person has shown no remorse,” the documents said about one suspect, in comments common to some of the others. “While in custody, he treated the matter as a joke and used his time in custody to plan future criminal enterprises.”
The documents did not elaborate on the “criminal enterprises.”
Lawyers for the suspects did not immediately respond to the police claims.
The five — two aged 14, two 15, and one 16 — were arrested after storming into the school, smashing windows, terrorizing students and bashing at least one teacher who tried to stop them over the head.
Police claim the gang assaulted seven students and two teachers, and smashed windows and doors, causing more than A$15,000 (US$14,000) damage during the six-minute rampage. Each count of assault carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.
Eighteen students were slightly hurt — mostly cuts from broken glass.
Serious violence in Australian schools is rare, and shootings and stabbings almost unheard of.
No suspected motive for the attack was given yesterday. Police said on Monday the suspects may have been looking for someone in particular.
Police have refused to say whether the alleged attackers were students at the school.
The drama unfolded as hundreds of students attended a routine assembly in an outdoor area of the school about 9am.
As the attackers arrived at the scene brandishing weapons, teachers rushed the students back to class, where they sought refuge behind locked doors, under desks and even in a cupboard.
Worried parents rushed to the school as students flooded the airwaves with calls from mobile phones and news of the attack was broadcast.
The raid was “sustained and violent” and had caused “horrific physical and emotional harm” to hundreds of students at the school that would take years to repair, the police documents said.
“The premeditated actions of the young persons were an attack on the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Australians on a daily basis, to attend school in an atmosphere of safety and security,” they said.
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