Teen taunted police in stolen car morning after triple fatal crash

A special investigation into youth crime at Maryborough has uncovered staggering new details about a pack of out-of-control teen thieves and one boy’s disgraceful act just hours after a triple fatal crash.

Just hours after he helped steal a Mercedes which would later be involved in a triple fatal crash, a 13-year-old boy was allegedly back behind the wheel of another stolen car, driving past the Maryborough police station and taunting officers who were powerless to pursue.

This is among the confronting details the Courier Mail has uncovered amid an investigation into the events before and after the stolen Mercedes allegedly caused a crash which claimed the lives of Kelsie Davies, 17, Michale Chandler, 29 and Sheree Robertson, 52 on Sunday night.

While not in the car at the time of the crash (another 13-year-old boy has been charged with dangerous driving causing death) it’s understood the juvenile was not only the passenger captured on CCTV when the Mercedes was stolen earlier that evening but that he has also continued to leave a trail of carnage since.

CCTV vision of two youths stealing a car before the same car was involved in a fatal car crash in Maryborough. Photo – Ch7

It can be revealed the boy, despite knowing his friend had the night before been arrested over a crash which killed three people, allegedly stole a white Kia Cerato with the registration 240 XYS, on Labour Day morning.

That car was seen being driven erratically through the city with multiple sources saying the three youths inside that car drove past the Maryborough Police Station, “taunting” officers, throwing things out the window and sticking their middle fingers up.

A picture of the Kia was posted on the Maryborough Community page that same morning with the caption “here we go again last seen flying down Kent St, front end smashed”.

A stolen white Kia Cerato.

It’s understood police were unable to give chase due to pursuit legislation and the CBD location.

The boy has since been arrested and on Thursday was charged with two counts of dangerous operation of motor vehicle, one count each of driving without a licence and possessing dangerous drugs.

He and the 13-year-old alleged driver in Sunday’s deadly crash are said to be part of the same group of delinquents who travel and commit crimes as a pack.

It can also be revealed that in the week prior to the crash, the alleged driver was arrested over a number of property offences and let off with a “caution”, a process in accordance with The Youth Justice Act which “notes that the purpose of cautioning is to divert children from the criminal justice system”.

Members of that same group are believed to be responsible for further car stealing offences including one which recently ended in a crash on Churchill Street as well as more break-ins and attempts in Maryborough in the past week.

Fraser Coast nurse Sheree Robertson, Reach Church pastor Michale Chandler and teen Kelsie Davies were killed in the horror crash in Maryborough.

Multiple residents have detailed recent crimes in their streets, also on the Maryborough Community forum, which has more than 44,000 members.

One member posted that she was in the suburb of Bell Hilltop last week when teenage boys in a blue sedan with a spoiler attempted to steal her car while she was loading groceries into her boot.

“Luckily I had seen them slowly driving past and locked my gates just in case,” she wrote

“At the same time one of them tried kicking my gates in … another threw a very large landscaping rock at a neighbour’s car.”

Another post read: “Saturday night before bed I took my dog out, I was standing on the inside of my 6ft fence when I hear … three to four really young voices on the other side whispering about how to ‘bust in’ to cars”.

On Thursday, another concerned local woman asked forum members “with all the car thieving going on is it possible perhaps for some community minded person to give us a talk on disabling a car motor when it's put away at night?”.

The Courier Mail contacted the Queensland Police Service and Queensland Police Union about the youth crime wave gripping the city, the effectiveness of cautions and the alleged behaviour outside the police station but a response has not yet been received.

Queensland’s Shadow Police Minster Dale Last said the LNP’s “solutions” to the youth crime crisis included consequences to put “the rights of victims first, unshackling the judiciary by removing Labor’s policy of detention as a last resort, and delivering gold standard early intervention to turn around young lives”.

“The LNP has asked the Auditor-General to review the effectiveness of the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s cloak-and-dagger early intervention programs,” Mr Last said

“Police are fed-up with young criminals thumbing their nose at the law, while they’re left powerless by Labor’s weak laws.”