EXCLUSIVE
A couple who held off a group of teenagers from viciously bashing a defenceless young boy say their selfless act of bravery was to set an example for their children.
Simon Horrocks and his partner Renee Nowytarger rushed into the fray to rescue the boy, who was being brutally set upon by a mob of about 30 youths near Manly Wharf on Sydney‘s northern beaches on Sunday, January 6 just after 9pm.
After managing to scatter the attackers who were stomping on the boy’s head in the middle of an intersection, Mr Horrocks and Ms Nowytarger rushed the victim into a Fratelli Fresh restaurant and blocked the doors as staff whisked him out the back to safety.
Mr Horrocks, a 58-year-old local father-of-one, was punched multiple times in the face and hit in the shoulder by a bottle after he managed to fetch the boy out from the scrum of assailants.
His partner, who is a multiple Walkley Award winning press photographer, escaped physical injury but was spat on numerous times as she shielded the boy.
The couple saw the teens descend on him as they walked home after enjoying a birthday celebration meal for Ms Nowytarger at Manly’s Sake restaurant.
Mr Horrocks, who is a sales manager for a Silicon Valley start-up, told Daily Mail Australia that it was his partner who charged in to help without a moment’s hesitation.
‘I didn’t really have any choice, it was Renee who showed the heroic instinct,’ he said.
Simon Horrocks and Renee Nowytarger rushed without hesitation into the fray to rescue a boy being beaten by a rampaging mob of youths in Manly
However, he said the pair have seen ‘three or four’ similar situations around Manly where teens have been chasing and fighting each other and on a previous occasion Mr Horrocks said he stepped in to help a youth who was knocked to the ground.
The couple had talked about what they would do when seeing someone attacked and both agreed they wanted to set an example for their children, who they hoped would also be one day brave enough to help someone in need.
‘I don’t think anyone knows what they will do in a fraught situation but I think we would all like to think we would be the ones to step in and out especially if someone is put at serious risk,’ Mr Horrocks said.
As the pair held off the mob outside the restaurant, with the doors being barricaded by patrons inside which including interim Nine CEO Matt Stanton, Mr Horrocks said they took radically different approaches.
He tried to reason with the mob, telling them the police would arrive soon and their intended victim was beyond their reach.
‘While I am at one door trying to calm them down, she is at the other door stepping forward getting right in their faces and stabbing the palm of her hand right in front of their faces and shouting “Back off!”,’ Mr Horrocks said.
The teenage boy was viciously boy was rescued from a brutal assaulted near the Many Wharf in Sydney’s north
‘She’s been in some pretty interesting situations – coups, bombings, war zones, all the rest of it – and has trained with special forces on evacuation techniques and hostage taking and that sort of stuff.
‘When we walked home later I said, “Are you sure that was the right thing to do? I was trying to calm things down, you were almost trying to wind them up!” and she said, “it’s my training”.
‘It worked for her.’
After the teens dispersed, police found a knife lying at the scene, which Mr Horrocks said surprised him.
However, despite learning he was in a more risky situation than it may have appeared, Mr Horrocks, originally from Manchester in the UK, said he was unflustered.
He said the reason he migrated to Australia almost 13 years ago was because of the level of violence in London.
‘I came to Australia when my daughter, Amelie, was four because we were living in central London,’ he said.
Matt Stanton (pictured left in the striped t-shirt) was one of two men who held the door against the rampaging mob trying to hunt down their victim.
‘There’s a lot of knife crime in London. There’s a story every week about a kid being killed. We decided we didn’t want to grow up with with that around her.
‘I certainly am aware of the danger (in Manly) but it’s clear to me it’s not at a level that I used to live with in London. I suppose that knives are generally used for show around kids.
‘I wouldn’t say I am blasé about it but I am also not terrified by having knives around.’
Mr Horrocks said he wanted to stress the positives of living where he does.
‘I want for people to know that this kind of thing can happen in Manly but it is not rife,’ he said.
‘The northern beaches, Manly, has not changed overnight into some kind of centre of knife crime.
‘We’ve not suddenly become a dangerous place to live.’
He said as a result of the widely publicised incident ‘…the community really came together’.
‘That has very positive impact with the policing locally with the taskforce that has been set up and the engagement with a local MP,’ he said.
‘We were aware detectives are working very hard on it. They told us they would make two or three arrests before the weekend and they were as good as their word.
‘The charges are riot and affray which are much more serious than public disorder.
Mr Horrocks (pictured) said when his partner rushed in to help the boy he was ‘left with no choice’ but to go in as well
Simon Horrocks, (pictured with his daughter Amelie) said he moved to Australia almost 13 years ago to escape the epidemic of knife crime in the UK
‘It has had an immediate impact on the safety of the local population.
‘It made things safer for the Australia Day weekend. In Manly the police presence was significantly increased.’
Following the establishment of Strike Force Crookhaven, police made three arrests in connection with the January 6 incident.
There is no suggestion that any of those persons are guilty of the incidents described on the night in question.
Emilio Martinez, 18 of Bonnyrigg Heights in Sydney’s south-west, appeared at Manly Local Court on Wednesday morning charged with affray and riot.
After pleading not guilty, Martinez has been released on conditional bail with his next court appearance scheduled for March.
His bail conditions include not entering the Northern Beaches LGA unless to attend court and ‘be of good behaviour and follow all reasonable requests of his parents’.
Royce Jensen, 20 of Wyong on the NSW Central Coast, was also arrested and has pleaded guilty to common assault but not guilty to riot charges.
He remains in custody with his next court appearance scheduled for February.
A boy, aged 15, faces two counts of common assault, riot and affray over the January 6 incident.
He has been granted conditional bail to appear before a children’s court in February.
