SA youth sentencing crackdown — John Rau will introduce laws to ensure serious young offenders are punished as adults
EXCLUSIVE: Attorney-General John Rau will amend the Young Offenders Act to ensure youths who are convicted of serious crimes in the District Court are treated as adult offenders and receive harsher sentences.
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ANY youth who is put on trial in the District Court will be sentenced using guidelines for adult offenders under a major overhaul of the Young Offenders Act.
Attorney-General John Rau SC will introduce an amendment to the Act in State Parliament on Tuesday — in direct response to the public outcry over the Nicole Tucker crash death case.
The amendment will ensure youths tried and convicted in the District Court receive higher sentences that reflect of the level of their offending.
Mr Rau said the move directly reflects community expectations for offending of “such gravity’’.
“When a judge is of the view that because of the nature of the offending by a youth that they should be tried as an adult, what comes with that is not just being dealt with in the District Court instead of the Children’s Court, it means the whole adult sentencing regime comes too,’’ he told The Advertiser.
“That means all of the current priorities in the Young Offenders Act that say you have to have primary regard to the prospects of rehabilitation, all of those go out of the window.
“They become secondary considerations in the sentencing process.’’
Mr Rau said he expected the measure would be used infrequently in exceptional cases.
“I would imagine it would be a handful of times a year, maybe,’’ he said.
He said he expected the amendment would be supported fully in the Assembly and anticipated the majority of Legislative Council members would agree with it.
The move follows the decision by Director of Public Prosecutions Adam Kimber SC not to appeal the sentence handed out to the youth, 16, who killed Nicole Tucker in a horrific high speed smash last October.
District Court Judge Tracey sentenced the youth to three years, four months and one week with a non-parole period of 18 months — sparking outrage from her family and the public.
One of the reasons given by Mr Kimber for not appealing was the fact the youth was sentenced according to guidelines and principles under the Young Offenders Act.
Key among them are the sentence might allow the youth to develop into a responsible, useful member of the community.
Mr Rau said he would have been “abusing my position’’ if he had directed Mr Kimber to appeal the sentence after being advised any appeal would have been unsuccessful.
“I cannot say strongly enough that for me to have directed the DPP in circumstances where I knew it was doomed to fail would have been a gross abuse of process, it would have been inconsiderate on the family and completely unprofessional,’’ he said.
“It also would not fix the problem.’’