Cairns youth crime: Far North residents begging for action amid surge of thefts

Cairns crime victims are ‘fed up’ with young crims and they have offered their solutions to tackle the crisis. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THEIR SOLUTIONS?

FAR North victims of crime are “fed up” with being terrorised by youths breaking into homes and taking cars.

Curfews, increased police presence, tougher laws and rehabilitation for repeat offenders are some of the fixes being put forward by the community to help tackle the increase in youth crime.

Pat Blake, of Gordonvale, is calling for more police in the area after her long-time elderly friends had their home broken into four times in the past two months, with the couple now wanting to move away.

Cairns City Police Beat Officer in Charge Senior Sergeant Gary Hunter in the Mobile Police Beat, which he said is a modern, agile policing solution which can tackle youth crime by swiftly being deployed wherever the community needs it. Picture: Alison Paterson

“My elderly friends have been broken into four times, the first time they broke in one night and stole money, handbag car keys and one car, they then came back the next night and stole the second car,” she said.

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“Just a few weeks later, they were broken into again in the early evening and came through the back door and helped themselves to her handbag again and last Friday night they were hit for a fourth time, with the house fully secured these people still managed to get in where they stole a cash box.

“They are now planning to move because they don’t want to be in their house anymore, which is sad.

Cliff Sparks, White Rock, was a victim of youth crime and had a machete swung at his head and his arm broken by a crowbar in an attack. Picture: Brendan Radke

“I know you see a lot of repeat offenders so it’s looking at a case-by-case basis on why these youths are going down this path and how to understand and alter that path and increased police patrols at night would really help.”

Cairns locals are echoing the dire need for solutions to reoffending kids, with resident Suzie Levi in support of introducing curfews.

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“Implement the curfew system and make it mandatory that parents must report their children missing during curfew times or face heavy fines,” she commented under a social media post,” she said.

“That will give an indication of who these children are then put them in programs.”

Acting Chief Superintendent Chris Hodgman met with Youth Justice Taskforce Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon in March to discuss the efforts made against juvenile crime in FNQ. Picture: Brendan Radke

Justin Lee said fixing the legal system is the only way to go to ensure offenders “are locked up and can’t reoffend.”

“We, the people, are not the ones who need to change, the perpetrators need to stop breaking the law,” he commented.

“We should be able to leave keys, wallets etc, in our own homes without having them stolen.”

Originally published as Cairns youth crime: Far North residents begging for action amid surge of thefts