Teen denied freedom after breaking into a Kew home during two-month crime spree

A Melbourne magistrate has prioritised the safety of Victorians, refusing to free an “appalling” teen offender, while taking aim at police for supporting his release over a two-month crime spree.

A Melbourne magistrate has sent a powerful message to victims of crime, refusing to free an “appalling” teen offender, while criticising police for supporting his release over a two-month crime spree.

Gail Hubble prioritised the safety of Victorians over the violent brute saying, “in my view, home invasions are crimes so serious ... they warrant a period of detention”.

Police and the boy’s defence lawyer had both argued in a children’s court on Thursday for his release on a probation order because it was his first-time offending.

But Ms Hubble labelled the offending “appalling”.

“I am staggered that the police are seeking probation,” she said, adding that the offending involved a home invasion, and also the use of bladed weapons and threatening and assaulting innocent victims in raids on milk bars and service stations.

“I wonder what a child would have to do to get a custodial sentence first up?”

The tough-talking magistrate’s remarks come after months of community outrage over the bailing — and soft sentences — of hard core youth offenders, highlighted by the Herald Sun’s Suburbs Under Siege campaign.

The Allan government was forced to pass tough bail laws amid an out-of-control youth crime crisis, and some accused repeat offenders released into the community up to 55 times.

Balaclava-clad teens arrived at the couple’s Sackville St home in a stolen BMW. Picture: Mark Stewart.

Ms Hubble went against the sentencing submissions of defence and the prosecution, saying home invasions were the worst kind of offending.

“It strikes at the heart of people’s safety and security in the home,” she said.

The 16-year-old brute had been released on bail on January 21 over a series of armed hold-ups on service stations and milkbars where knives, sledgehammers and axes were used to steal tens of thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes and cash.

In one of the 13 aggravated burglaries he pleaded guilty to, he threatened the worker at a Cranbourne West service station on January 17, saying “I will stab you”, before jumping the counter and nicking $15,000 worth of cigarettes and $450 cash from the register.

On his arrest, the boy told police he was stealing the cigarettes to onsell them for financial gain.

Asked who he sold them to, he said: “Blokes.”

And how much he would get for them? “$15,000,” he said.

Police arrested multiple teenagers after the Kew home invasion. Picture: 7 NEWS.

A month later on February 24, he was one of four youths who broke into a Sackville St property in Kew in the early hours of the morning, leaving the couple who lived there terrified and no longer able to sleep at their home.

The couple had woke to find the balaclava-clad youth and his co-offender standing over their bed and demanding the keys to the two Porsches in their driveway.

When the couple refused and tried to talk the pair down, a scuffle ensued and they grabbed one of the victim’s phones and said they wouldn’t give it back until they provided the keys.

The teen hoodlum laughed when his co-offender then told the couple: “I have never killed anyone, but I can start.”

They only fled the home when police arrived, running out the back door and hiding in a nearby garden, where they were arrested soon after.

The boy’s lawyer told the court that he wasn’t staying at home and had also been skipping school at the time of the offending.

“He had booked an apartment with his friends to celebrate his 16th birthday,” she said.

She argued it was his first time before the courts for sentencing, and that his lack of priors, young age, social disadvantageand racism he had faced at school were mitigating factors.

She said the 44 days he had already spent in detention was a sufficient punishment and that he should be released to be able to rehabilitate himself.

Ms Hubble disagreed, and remanded him to be sentenced next month.

Originally published as Teen denied freedom after breaking into a Kew home during two-month crime spree