‘I robbed a shop worker at knife-point when I was nine’

A young reformed criminal who robbed a shop at knife-point at nine and was shanked with a toothbrush in detention, says kids should spend a day in adult jail to stop them reoffending.

Junior lived with an ice dealer and robbed a store at knife-point when he was just 9.

A young reformed criminal who robbed a shop at knife-point at nine and was shanked with a toothbrush in detention, says kids should spend a day in adult jail to stop them reoffending.

“Junior”, 19, has no memory of his immediate family – his earliest memories are of being in an institution.

“We didn’t even celebrate birthdays in the boarding care home,” he said.

Junior said he “ended up running away” to live with an ice dealer who was selling him cannabis.

Youths rioting on top of a building at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in 2016. Picture: DOMANII CAMERON

He often found the ice-addicted dealer had no food.

Junior didn’t take ice himself but started stealing then got involved in “house-breaking, run-throughs and robberies”.

“I robbed a 7-11 with a knife at age 9,” he said.

“I did it because I was hungry. The dealer had no food in the house.”

Zain says he thinks young Aboriginal people would benefit from learning more about 'Aboriginal lore'.

His story and views comes amid growing debate on how best to deal with a spike in youth crime in the Far North and across the state.

While the number of unique child offenders have continued to decline, The volume of youth offending in Cairns has been trending upwards since late 2020.

Earlier this month, it was revealed 91 per cent of people who leave the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre are changed within another offence within 12 months.

Junior ended up in juvenile detention, which he said “made him worse” because it was “all the same crime as on the outside - drugs, stealings and assault”.

He pulled up his pants to reveal a 15cm scar and then one that was closer to 50cm in his lower leg.

Junior said some of the other boys in detention made a shank out of a plastic tooth brush and attacked him with it.

He said that at the end of his juvenile detention he was sent to an adult prison as part of a trial program to discourage young offenders, and that’s “when the real lessons began”.

“I met an older man there who had spent 37 years in jail. He killed three people,” Junior said. “I asked him what he did, and he said first-degree murder, and it really dawned on me that I didn’t want to go there.

Cleveland Youth Detention Centre. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

“I didn't want to waste my life.”

He eventually found himself attending a Catholic church, which he said helped him understand that “stealing was a sin”.

Junior went back to school and now, aged 19, has a good job in the mines.

“I didn't choose the ghetto, the ghetto chose me,” he said.

“These kids are now making choices. I tell them all the time to get off the street.

“They need to put these young kids in jail for a couple of days like they did with me, and they’ll see how serious it gets when you get older.”

Junior’s friend Zain also knows about difficult childhoods.

Zain said that from the time he became a teenager he would get into a lot of fights.

Daniel says the death of his father helped him to understand he needed to stop committing crimes and support his family.

“I was angry but angry about dumb things,” he said.

But he said he found his way in life through football.

“I got involved in the Cowboys academy and played with Northern Pride,” Zain said.

“Without football, I wouldn’t be here today.

“I am the first person in my family to finish year 12.”

Two other former youth offenders also had something in common with both Junior and Zain; they went on a gradual maturation throughout their teenage years which saw them shift away from crime.

Junior said spending time in an adult jail, and then starting going to church, stopped him from reoffending. The 19-year-old, who has no memory of his biological family, now works full-time in the mining industry.

Daniel* told us that at 11 he was stealing cars and, at 12, started stealing buses.

His friend Michael said he was also stealing cars at around the same age.

“We came from nothing, we had nothing, we had nothing to lose,” Daniel said.

“People need to understand when these young people commit crimes, it’s a sign that there is a problem at the home.”

For Daniel, the death of his father made him realise he needed to take on a new role providing for his family.

In the case of Michael*, as he got older he came to the realisation that “people work hard for what they have”.

“I wouldn’t like those things stolen from me,” Michael said.

“Boxing is what I’m passionate about now.”

Zain, meanwhile, says that he supports Bob Katter’s idea for taking young offenders out to remote properties to break the cycle of crime they find themselves in.

“In Aboriginal lore, if someone is misbehaving, they are dropped off in the bush with a knife and a spear,” Zain said.

“They stay there for a week and have to learn how to survive.

“It happened to ... (someone in the community) after they committed domestic violence. They never committed domestic violence again.

“I want to pass on what I’ve learned to help the other boys.

“Most of all I want to teach them about black lore.”

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*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

Originally published as ‘I robbed a shop worker at knife-point when I was nine’