A man will appear in court today following lengthy investigations by Campbelltown City detectives into numerous serious crimes including the possession of child abuse material, significant malicious damage to schools and firearm offences.
On Sunday, July 18 of this year, an off-duty police officer arrested an 18-year-old man after he allegedly attempted to lure two children – aged 8 and 10 – into a reserve at Mount Annan.
A subsequent search of the man’s Mount Annan home allegedly revealed replica firearms and a number of hard drives.
He was taken to Camden Police Station where he was charged; those matters remain before the court.
As inquiries continued, detectives from Campbelltown City Police Area Command examined the seized hard drives and other evidence gathered from the Mount Annan home.
Police will allege they found evidence of crimes committed between 2019-2021 including a break and enter at a school where he left intimidating messages on the school iPads, malicious damage to separate schools where he smashed a total of 56 windows, set fire to a science block, and damaged other property using a crow bar and a handsaw.
Officers will further allege that during the early hours of Monday, October 14, 2019, the then juvenile broke into Mount Annan High School, pictured above, where he set fire to the library.
The building was completely destroyed with an estimated damage value of $2.5 million.
Police will also be alleging they found a significant amount of child abuse material on the hard drives.
Detectives yesterday (Thursday), charged the man with a total of 17 offences including break and enter, using a carriage service to menace/harass/offend, destroy or damage property, destroy property by fire, firearm offences and possession of child abuse material.
He was refused bail and will appear in Campbelltown Children’s Court today for all charges except the child abuse material charge, which will be heard in the Local Court today.
