Youth crime wave update: Toowoomba records 10,000 crimes committed by juveniles

The scale of Toowoomba’s youth justice scourge has been revealed with the Garden City falling victim to more than 10,000 offences committed by juveniles over a five year period. Here’s a handful of crimes that rocked the region in 2023.

The scale of the youth justice scourge plaguing Toowoomba has been revealed with the Garden City falling victim to more than 10,000 offences committed by teens in the past five years.

The data was released following a Question on Notice put to the Youth Justice Minister by Toowoomba South MP David Janetzki.

It showed the Toowoomba police division recorded 10,350 offences in the past five years, with a staggering 2385 offences committed in 2022.

The figures for 2023 only date to October 31 and the city was on track to reduce the previous year’s record, with 1695 offences.

Year-to date, this is about 94 fewer offences.

Mr Janetzki said the numbers did not tell the full story, as hundreds of offences go unreported, nor do they speak to the emotional and financial burden borne by victims.

“Our community has been subjected to shocking crimes perpetrated by youths this year – relentless car thefts, home invasions, armed robberies, stabbings, and culminating in the death of Robert Brown outside Grand Central Shopping Centre,” Mr Janetzki said.

“Pensioners have been mugged at ATMs, dragged out of their cars and beaten, and threatened with weapons inside their homes by teenagers with no regard for the law.

Shadow Treasurer David Janetzki at a news conference at State Parliament Wednesday December 13, 2023. Picture: John Gass

“This generation of untouchables rush to post their crimes on social media, that is how certain they are, there will be no consequences for their actions.”

Mr Janetzki said the government needed to create consequences for actions.

“Police work tirelessly to catch youth offenders, now we need to unshackle the judiciary by removing detention as a last resort,” he said.

The extraordinary spike in youth crime at the start of 2023 led the Toowoomba Chronicle to launch its Enough is Enough campaign, which soon spread across all News Corp mastheads in the state.

It called for action from the state government, to protect lives and property, and to address the root causes of youth crime – homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence and disengagement in school or work.

All of Queensland daily newspapers ran the same front page co-signed by all editors calling on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her government to commit to measures to fix the states youth crime crisis.

The government responded by pouring resources into our community.

It funded extra police patrols through Operation Victor Unison and rolled out the Youth Co-Responder program that pairs police and youth justice case workers to do intensive monitoring of known offenders.

There are specialised grants to pay for new locks after a home is broken into, and to pay for extra security for the homes of senior citizens.

In the New Year Project Booyah will take young people who are on track to be the next crop of teen offenders and put them through a three-month cognitive behaviour program that has been proven to teach them how to make better decisions.

Crimes that shocked:

Trio stabs homeless boy

On the eve of the Youth Crime Forum hosted by QPS Commissioner Katarina Carroll and Police Minister Mark Ryan, two teens and a 19-year-old man went into a public toilet and stabbed a homeless boy.

The stabbing was made all the more public when the victim walked onto Margaret St and collapsed while the offenders posed for social media photos with the knife.

They were arrested hours later charged with wounding and attempted armed robbery.
All three offenders have each been dealt with the courts.

The ring leader, Mullenjarly Pitt, had no criminal history and was released with a suspended jail sentence.

The victim returned to his life on the street and fell out of contact with the police handling his case.

Shopping centre carjacking

Elderly residents have been the target of several violent carjackings in the past few years as they are soft targets.

Scared, alone and vulnerable.

WIlliam John Maximos Doidge was jailed on June 3, 2022 for 12 months after committing multiple car thefts across the Toowoomba region.

William John Maximos Doidge committed one of these offences in May when he dragged a 50-year-old woman from her car during a late-night armed robbery at Clifford Gardens Shopping Centre.

He pleaded guilty to a raft of crimes in December including stealing a car and possessing drugs, and was sentenced Doidge to a six month jail term.

Best place for repeat offender was jail

The harrowing life of an Indigenous boy born into a home scarred with violence, drug abuse and neglect was laid bare in the Childrens Court of Queensland when it ruled that the best place for the 17-year-old was jail.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to six offences including two counts of robbery.

They relate to the theft of a Mercedes Benz from a Toowoomba home on October 7, 2022 where the boy entered a woman’s home while armed with a knife and threatened her.

The court heard the 36-year-old woman asked the boy to leave as she had two young children with her.

“Give me your key mother******,” was his response.

Originally published as Youth crime wave update: Toowoomba records 10,000 crimes committed by juveniles