Nude prank does not slide
SKINNY-dipping down a sudsed-up waterslide near Cairns must have seemed hilarious at the time but it was not so funny when the three teenage girls involved fronted court yesterday.
Acting Cairns Magistrate Kerry McFadden was not amused at the drunken prank late on February 21 when he fined "ringleader" and second-time offender Joy Tarnia Miller, 18, $200 for trespassing.
He let the two other first-time offenders, Jessie Elizabeth Abernethy, 17, and Sarah Kate Brauns, 19, off with good behaviour bonds.
No convictions were recorded.
"Taking detergent in there, I don`t know what the waterworks situation is but I daresay it could wreck the whole system," Mr McFadden said.
Outside the court, Ms Miller, a beauty therapist trainee, said this was her second offence in a year for trespassing at the Edmonton park and she would not be chancing a third time.
"It was just a drunk thing," she said.
"I go to the park during the day too but this was so much better... there are no people so we could just run up so easily.
"Then we turned the hose on and put the detergent in; it does make you go much faster.
"And being naked, you`ve got nothing on your bum and whoooo."
She said she and her friends crawled under the fence to get into the park and were on their third nude run down the slide when the security guard turned up about 11.30pm.
"I do understand it is a running business and we shouldn't have brought detergent but we all said we'd come back and clean it up if they wanted us to," Ms Miller said.
Mr McFadden told Ms Miller he could accept it was "a bit of a prank" the first time but now it was time for her to grow up.
He said if she kept it up she could well go to jail.
Sugarworld manager Ersilia Phipps said all the water in the pools had to be filtered and extra chemicals put in whenever detergent was added.
But Ms Phipps said her biggest concern was the danger of people sliding down "pitch black" slides under the influence of alcohol and with no supervision.
"If they hit their heads they could quite easily drown," she said.
Share this article
Twice is enough: Joy Tarnia Miller was fined $200 for trespassing during a skinny-drip at Sugarworld. It was the second time she had been caught trespassing at the water park.
New Jetstar flights between Cairns and Osaka
THE re-introduction of Jetstar's four weekly direct services to Osaka in Japan and a doubling of flights to Melbourne from April 1 next year are the first significant announcements today by the airline as the result of a new agreement with Cairns Airport.
Kate earns National Pride Medal
INSPIRING young leader and cancer survivor Kate Smith could hardly believe she won a national Pride of Australia medal last night.
Escapee back in custody
BREAKING NEWS: Police have found a man who escaped from police custody at Ravenshoe on Sunday night.
Woman watched boyfriend bash, strip tourist
THE girlfriend of a man accused of raping and attempting to rape two foreign tourists at a Cairns caravan park says she watched him bash and strip one of them then chase after her.
