Lisa Habermann

FISHERMEN on Rye pier are fearful but defiant after louts threw an elderly man off the Rye pier.

“It is terrible that they do this to the older people,” said Gaetano Apa, who regularly fishes on the pier with his wife Dominica.

Mr Apa, who lives in Lalor but has a house in Tootgarook, said he had heard about the fisherman who was thrown off the pier on March 11 by a group of boys.

“They tried to do it to me too, on another day,” Mr Apa said.

“They come up and say, ‘Do you have fish? Can you swim?’

“One young boy about 12 years old kept asking me these questions. He then went to a group of older boys and they all came back.

“He walked behind me and tried to push me in. I waved my fishing rod at him and scared him away.

“I can’t swim. If they pushed me in, I would be a dead man.”

Another fisherman, who asked not to be named, said he saw the man being pushed into the water.

“I know him as Giovanni,” he said.

“Three boys pushed him in and two women rescued him. It is not good. He is a good man.”

Mr Apa said he had not seen the elderly fisherman back at the pier since the attack.

Rye police are aware of the attack, but were unavailable for comment by Leader’s deadline.

The fishermen have called for police to step up their patrols on the pier.

Source : The Mornington Peninsula Leader