Gaffiti vandal jailed - at last!

A GRAFFITI vandal has been jailed after a judge overturned a court's decision not to convict him over a five-year wave of attacks that caused $50,000 damage.

Noam Jason Shoan, 25, was yesterday sentenced in the County Court to three months' jail over 42 counts of criminal damage carried out on Melbourne's public transport network between 2001 and 2006.

Everywhere in Australia's cities the ordinary person has for years faced with feelings of powerlessness the defiling of the environment by graffiti vandals. The local council or state government no sooner finishes a public work (building, by-pass, new road) than the bran new feature is covered with the ugly scrawl of gangs of feral males.

The ordinary home owner puts up his front fence in trepidation because he knows that it will probably fall prey to the ferals who maraud in the neighbourhood clasping paint spray cans. And he knows the local council or police can't or won't do anything about it - nor about the thousands of dollars of damage that has been done to the neighbourhood. The neighbours' fences across the road from me and around the corner on a main  are covered in that dirty ugly scrawl.

Three months jail for this sort of criminal is just the start. Let's hope there are more judges with enough strength of purpose and conviction to go after these young men who are desperately in need of boot camp - run by men. Read the complete report: