Charges laid after Schoolies assault

[Dominic]

Gold Coast police have laid their first serious charges at the Schoolies Week celebrations, with a 17-year-old from New South Wales last night charged over a violent mugging. While most offenses by drunken teenage revellers related to unruly behaviour, including climbing wheelie bins and urinating in public, police arrested the Katoomba teenager after he allegedly stole a 17-year-old girl's handbag.

Gold Coast Superintendent Jim Keogh said the 17-year-old boy allegedly stole the teenager's handbag near the stage in the exclusive Schoolies Week Hub on Surfers Paradise Beach, before fleeing to the shoreline. When the victim confronted the boy on the beach, he allegedly punched her and tried to flee again, trampling another Schoolie lying in the sand as he ran. ...continued.