Police & Court
Teen’s wild ride: Alleged 200km/h driving and detention riot
A Shepparton teen allegedly drove at 200km/h down a rural Goulburn Valley road and over 160km/h in a residential Kialla street, a court has heard.
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He is also alleged to have been the driver of a car that crashed in Kialla on a separate occasion and was allegedly part of a riot at a youth detention centre.
Isaac Hindmarsh, 18, started a bail application in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, June 18.
He is charged with reckless conduct endangering life and driving while disqualified, and Hindmarsh’s solicitor indicated his client would be entering a guilty plea to those two charges.
Shepparton police Senior Constable Zach Clarke told the court the Police Air Wing started following Mr Hindmarsh as he drove a Volkswagen Golf on Wahring-Murchison East Rd at Murchison at 9.30am on April 19.
Police on the ground tried to intercept the car after it pulled into a service station at Byrneside an hour later, but Mr Hindmarsh drove off at an excessive speed.
Sen Constable Clarke said the vehicle reached speeds of 180km/h on Dhurringile Rd and 200km/h in a 100km/h zone on Ferguson Rd at Tatura.
The car was then driven to Kialla where police allege it was clocked at 160km/h on Riverview Dve.
This included him driving fast past a daycare facility, while overtaking other vehicles on the wrong side of the road, Sen Constable Clarke said.
Mr Hindmarsh and two passengers got out of the car in the car park at Riverside Plaza and got into another car driven by a fourth person.
They were arrested a short time later at Shepparton Plaza in Benalla Rd, Shepparton.
Sen Constable Clarke also told the court about “a form of riot” Mr Hindmarsh was allegedly involved in with 12 others at Malmsbury Youth Detention Centre on October 3, last year.
Mr Hindmarsh is facing charges including attempting to escape custody, threatening to inflict serious injury, sexual assault, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, kidnapping and aggravated home invasion over that incident.
Sen Constable Clarke said the incident involved the accused group arming themselves with weapons, taking detention centre staff hostage and using their fob keys to enter different areas of the facility.
The group then allegedly ordered other residents of the facility to strip and forced them to perform sexual acts on each other, while they videoed them and showed them to associates, Sen Constable Clarke said.
In questioning Sen Constable Clake about the alleged riot, Mr Hindmarsh’s defence counsel said his client was mentioned only 18 times by name in the extensive summary about the incident.
They included him arming himself with a pole and going to another unit in the detention centre.
He also kicked a person to the face when they tried to move, coward-punched another person in the back of the head, and kicked another person in the head and then punched him in the face when he was on the ground, and punched yet another person in the face, the defence counsel said.
“That’s the extent of the allegations” against Mr Hindmarsh, the defence said.
Sen Constable Clarke said that in yet another incident on February 24, Mr Hindmarsh was involved in a single-vehicle car crash into a tree at 3.45am on Kialla Lakes Dve near Waranga Dve.
Police allege Mr Hindmarsh was the driver of the vehicle, but Mr Hindmarsh’s defence counsel argued police could not be sure of that and there were triable issues in this case.
Mr Hindmarsh’s charges over this incident include careless driving, drug driving, recklessly causing injury, negligently causing injury and possessing methamphetamines.
Mr Hindmarsh’s defence counsel said his client should be bailed because he was a young Aboriginal man with an intellectual disability.
He also said there were “triable issues” in the car crash matter, and that it was “not a foregone conclusion” that Mr Hindmarsh would not be sentenced to a community corrections order.
He said any risks could be ameliorated with the implementation of strict bail conditions including daily reporting to police and that he take part in the Court Integrated Services Program while on bail.
Prosecutor Senior Constable Ethan Hammill argued nothing could “alleviate the concerns that he would continue to drive at speed”.
The bail application will continue before Magistrate Megan Casey at a later date.