TWO girls aged 17 were capsicum sprayed by police at Mothers Beach, Mornington and charged with being drunk and disorderly at 8.15pm on Australia Day, Saturday 26 January.
The girls, of Mornington and Bittern, were taken back to Mornington police station and their parents called to collect them. They will be summonsed to appear at Frankston Magistrates’ Court.
Sergeant Chris Stock said up to half a dozen girls drinking on the foreshore became belligerent when ordered to hand over their alcohol by police. The foreshore is an alcohol-free zone.
He said an officer had a radio wrenched off a jacket by one of the girls before the arrests.
“We pushed about two dozen young people off the beach who were there to party,” he said. “They like to get it on early while nearby families were just trying to have a good time.”
In another Australia Day incident, four men aged 17 to 25 were charged with being drunk and disorderly at nearby Mills Beach, 5-8pm. They were each issued $700 infringement notices.
Senior Sergeant Paul Edwards said police enforcing alcohol bans along the Mornington foreshore later confiscated cans from another group of young men and tipped the beer out.
“They were not charged with any offence; it was punishment enough for them seeing their beer go down the drain,” he said.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 5 February 2019
