Three men sentenced over damage to Griffith's citrus sculptures

Justin Tuimalealifano, aged 21, was arrested after failing to appear in court on February 21. 

He was placed under arrest on Februrary 27 after police located him at a Griffith home. The defendant allegedly told police he “just forgot to go” to court.

He was convicted in March 14 in his absence before returning to court on March 22. Three other men were sentenced in December 2017.

William Vaeno, James Tafiti and Falefitu Tuimalealiifano were also charged with destruction of property. 

The sculptures were damaged in the early hours of  Sunday October 15 last year. 

One of the defendants allegedly admitted they had been drinking before the incident occurred. Two received $500 fines and another was ordered to do 50 hours of community service. 

Many residents came out to help reconstruct the sculptures.

Griffith musician Robert Fattore was alerted to the incident first thing in the morning on Sunday, October 15. He put out the call of Facebook for people to come and help. 

A group of about 25 volunteers then spent more than two hours fixing the sculptures.

The court heard Mr Tuilmalealifano presented himself to Griffith Police station on October 16. He allegedly told officers he had felt left out when the others had began knocking down sculptures so he “jumped in too”.

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Griffith mayor John Dal Broi and councillors Christine Stead and Brian Simpson were among the volunteers helping with the restoration. 

The Real Juice Citrus Sculptures is a popular annual Griffith festival attracting thousands of visitors each year. 

One of the men responsible took to social media to apologise in the aftermath. 

In a post made to a Facebook group called Griffith Community Notice Board, he said “no words can fully express how sorry we are”. 

“First I would like to apologize for our negative and selfish behaviour early hours on Sunday Morning. We are currently taking Actions to help ourselves, and prevent this ever occuring again,” it read. 

“We don’t expect forgiveness this letter is not to excuse our actions. This is an especially disrespectful and inappropriate behaviour we have committed to the Griffith community and surrounding areas.”

To those who went out of their way and time to clean up and put the orange sculpture back together, we deeply regret and sorry yous(sic) went through that from our stupidity.”