by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong teen has been jailed after firing a shotgun into two shopfronts across the other side of town.
Deng Nienkel, 19, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to possessing a gun contrary to a firearm prohibition order and to discharging it at a premises with reckless disregard for safety.
On 11 October, Nienkel and two co-accused drove in a VF Commodore to Buckley Street Essendon. He and one of the accomplices took out shotguns.
Nienkel fired into the front windows of a skin and laser clinic and into the neighbouring communal area of an apartment complex.
His co-accused fired a second shot into the clinic.
Protection Services Officers at Essendon railway station heard the shots, saw the Commodore driving away and observed a large shattered window and two holes in the wall at the complex.
Three weeks later, Nienkel was arrested by Special Operations Group police outside Hungry Jacks in Dandenong.
In sentencing on 2 August, Judge Trevor Wraight noted that Nienkel had “completely ignored” a firearm prohibition order served on him a week before the shooting.
And worse still, the “inescapable conclusion” was that he possessed the prohibited gun for criminal activity.
Born in a Kenyan refugee camp to South Sudanese parents, Nienkel settled with his family in Springvale in 2006. He was living with his family in Dandenong at the time of the incident.
Nienkel had been stranded in Kenya with extended family for 19 months during the Covid pandemic.
He was exposed to significant violence and subject to harsh police enforcement of Covid laws.
When he returned home in 2021, he had difficulty re-integrating. He was reluctant to repeat Year 10, and spiralled into drugs, alcohol abuse and crime, including aggravated carjacking.
A psychologist described him as an “unruly, anti-social personality type” with complex underlying mental health issues.
Judge Wraight rated Nienkel’s rehabilitation prospects as “guarded”.
Given his young age, Nienkel’s rehabilitation was the primary factor in sentencing – but also weight was given to deterrence, denunciation and community protection, the judge said.
Watching on a Port Phillip Prison video link, Nienkel was sentenced to nine months’ jail, which was already served in pre-sentence detention.
He was released on a two-and-a-half-year community correction order with supervision and 200 hours of unpaid work and treatment for drugs, alcohol and mental health issues.
Nienkel was ordered not to associate with the co-accused pair, who were friends living nearby.
