By ALESHA CAPONE
GRAFFITI vandals breaking into rail yards across Melbourne – including Newport – are endangering their lives and inconveniencing commuters, according to a Victoria Police expert.
Sergeant Duncan Browne from the Transit Division Response Unit spoke to Star last week.
He confirmed police have arrested graffiti offenders for breaking into the Newport Rail Workshops during the past 12 months.
In October last year, Hobsons Bay police began working with train operator Metro to monitor the Newport yards against intruders, due to increasing amounts of graffiti found on trains.
Sgt Browne said graffiti was an unusual criminal subculture, because it was not often motivated by money but was more of an “egotistical crime”.
“Within the graffiti culture, trains sit at the top of pyramids of things to tag,” he said.
“Their aim is to break in, do their murals and mostly post it on the internet.”
“There are 28 rail yards across Melbourne and each of them get targeted from time to time,” Sgt Browne said.
“They (the graffitists) use various methods to bypass security and certainly show determination to get in.
“Their main motivation is vandalism and to damage trains and we know that because we speak to them.
“They engage in risky behaviour like running over live tracks and near signalling and cabling.
“They also cause a massive disruption to train services and Metro then have to clean up after them.
“It’s certainly dangerous in some of the areas they access. We’ve had some people badly injured and killed by what they are doing.”
Sgt Browne said graffiti-splattered trains could not be used by Metro, thus causing delays and cancellations.
He said most graffiti vandals who broke into rain yards were male and aged their late teens, twenties and thirties.
During 2011, a 15-year-old Footscray boy was arrested for spraying graffiti on a train at the Newport yards.
