A teen who kicked two police cars during violent riots after a bishop was stabbed in a Sydney church has asked not to be convicted as "he was in the wrong place at the wrong time".
Dani Mansour was due to be sentenced at Blacktown Local Court on Thursday after he joined an angry throng outside Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley following the April attack.
Defence barrister Tim Kent said the 19-year-old's conduct in kicking police cars during the riot, which investigators say involved 2000 people, was at the lower end of objective seriousness.
Riot, to which Mansour pleaded guilty earlier in June, carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.
Mr Kent said the Doonside man had not acted violently towards anyone and had not joined others acting in a threatening way directly towards police officers, paramedics or people sheltering in the church.
"His evidence was that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.
Mansour was a young man with no criminal record who had acted immaturely in attending the riot and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, Mr Kent told Magistrate Aaron Tang.
He was also the sole breadwinner for his family, who fled war to come to Australia on refugee visas and had good prospects for the future, the barrister added.
Mansour's family sat in the courtroom in support.
Mr Kent agreed his client should pay $723 to NSW Police to cover the damage he had caused, but argued the young man should be released into the community on a conditional release order without conviction.
"I’m asking the court to give this young man a chance," he said.
The police prosecutor rejected the appeal for Mansour to be let off without a conviction, saying an intensive corrections order was appropriate given the seriousness of the conduct.
“What your honour's being asked to do is to not record a conviction for a riot - firstly, it would be manifestly inadequate," he said.
"The public would lose trust in the judicial system if that were the case.”
Mr Tang said he was inclined not to sentence Mansour to full-time custody.
However, he gave the 19-year-old eight more weeks to get further details on whether his war-time experience had created mental issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
The magistrate also suggested Mansour look into his eligibility for community service to give back, noting he had taken away from the public by damaging the police cars and impeding officers from doing their work.
The matter will return to the court for sentencing on August 23.
At least 30 people have been charged over the riot, during which people outside the church demanded the teen who allegedly stabbed Assyrian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and priest Isaac Royel be let out of the church and handed to the mob.
Dozens of police were injured and their cars vandalised during the violent gathering.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with a terrorism offence over the stabbing, which police alleged was religiously motivated.
