Royalla kangaroo killers who mowed down animals with ute all avoid jail

CONTENT WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of animal cruelty.

A man who was part of a group that mowed down and killed kangaroos in an incident that was filmed and posted to social media has avoided being sent to jail for what he described as “a bit of stupid fun”.

Peter John McMinn, then 19, was the only adult among the five teenagers that went on the rampage in the early hours of 18 April 2020, court documents say.

One of the other teens drove them to Royalla in his Mitsubishi Triton and McMinn suggested they run over kangaroos “for some fun”, to which they all agreed.

They used the ute to run over and kill a number of roos on public roads. Some of the animals survived being hit by the car, only to be killed afterwards by members of the group wielding a hammer.

A mobile phone was used to film some of the attacks.

One video showed the ute being driven at two adult kangaroos and one joey while they were crossing the road, during which one of the teens could be heard yelling, “Get the f-king baby, I want to bang it over the bullbar”.

The ute hit one adult and narrowly missed the joey, although it was filmed twisting and falling to the road.

In another incident, four kangaroos were seen crossing the road while someone said, “How many can you get?” This time, the ute hit one animal while it just missed another.

The ute was also filmed driving at a large buck roo as it hopped onto a roundabout while someone yelled, “Yeah, you would like the roundabout, you f-ggot c-t”.

Afterwards, the videos were edited and posted to the TikTok account of one of the teens.

Police interviewed McMinn in May 2022, during which he made admissions to being involved in the incident, described it as “a bit of stupid fun”, and conceded it was cruelty.

Sentencing submissions, which were among the court documents, said while five kangaroos were filmed being mowed down, the total number of those that had been hit was unknown.

The submissions said the four other teens, who had all been 17 at the time of the incident, had received non-conviction orders on appeal for their roles. They also noted McMinn showed remorse for his actions.

McMinn pleaded guilty to a charge of torture, beat and cause death of an animal. He lives in Googong and works in earth moving.

The 21-year-old appeared in the Queanbeyan Local Court on Monday (6 February) where Magistrate Roger Clisdell convicted him and sentenced him to a two-year community corrections order.

Original Article published by Albert McKnight on Riotact.