Debate rages after diversion order is handed to troubled teen who stuck needles in a train seat

Tom Elliott has clashed with a criminal justice spokesman after a teen who planted more than a dozen sewing needles in a train seat walked free on a diversion order.

As first reported by 3AW Drive in January, the teen – who cannot be named – hid the needles in the seat.

Anthony Artusa sat on them.

It’s emerged the teenage perpetrator had previously received a diversion order for a dishonesty offence and was caught with a knife and cannabis in the weeks before the train incident.

“How many goes do you get?” Tom Elliott asked.

But Greg Barns from the Australian Lawyers Alliance said jail wasn’t always the answer.

“You’ve got to have smart judgement, not just punitive judgement,” he said.

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