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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Michele Theil

Violence erupts at train station as teens hurl '30 to 40' opened cans at each other

A frenzy of violence broke out at a train station between a group of teenagers after they began throwing 30 to 40 opened cans at each other.

The six young men caused hundreds of pounds of damage, using a pole, a mop, and dozens of soft drinks cans as weapons at the station in Wales.

They appeared at Cardiff Crown Court for their "extremely frightening" actions on July 18, 2020.

Louis Berry, Thomas Ryan, and Rhys Cartwright from the West Midlands had been visiting their friend Paul Rostron and were about to catch their train home.

But Rostron became involved in an argument with another teenager from the area of Cwmbran named Garan Slade.

Slade was chased into the car park by the teens into a car driven by his mother.

Prosecutor Nigel Fryer said: "It was Louis Berry who started the confrontation by throwing a glass bottle towards the vehicle. It smashed on the floor."

"Rather than drive away, Slade's mother drove back to the station shouting from the window, 'I'm getting the boys down here now.'"

Slade then got out of the car, took his shirt off, and used a mop to hit people.

Slade's brother Talan arrived with three to four others on mopeds, prompting the West Midlands boys to seek refuge in a café and try to escape out the back.

Fryer said: "The situation was, in short, chaotic. The Cwmbran group armed themselves with poles, at least one of which was thrown into the café."

Rostron threw a pole back towards them while his friends fired soft drink cans "as missiles".

"The owner and staff were terrified. Eventually Garan Slade chased Berry into the car park. He was noted by witnesses to have threatened and tried to assault him," the court heard.

Police arrived soon after to arrest the six young men, and luckily no one was injured.

The violence caused significant damage to a fire alarm, costing £250, a sign costing £50 and ruined £40 worth of stock in the café. They also smashed a £178 glass door, which Rostron's mother has paid to repair.

Slade and his brother Talan, Berry, and Rostron all pleaded guilty to affray, a public order offence of fighting or violence in public, while Cartwright and Ryan admitted to a public order offence.

Though they all pleaded guilty, all of them claimed that they did not instigate or escalate the violence.

Presiding over the case, Judge Jenkins said: "I bear very much in mind your ages at the time and the fact that none of you had been in trouble before, with the exception of Garan Slade who had a caution."

"Quite how you involved yourselves in this level of violence, only you know. This is your last chance, a wake-up call for all of you. There is no future sitting in a dock."

Judge Jenkins awarded each defendant a 12-month community order, but noted that if they breached it, he would resentence them into a "young offenders institution" or "into custody".

In addition to the community order, all the defendants must complete ten days of rehab as well as paying £55 in compensation and £50 in legal costs.

The Slade brothers, Rostron, and Berry must also do 80 hours of unpaid work as part of their sentence.

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