Children ‘lucky’ to have survived ice-addict’s reckless escape

A 19-year-old father-of-two has been sent to the slammer for a shocking, drug-fuelled crime spree in which he narrowly avoided a group of children at a bus stop as he tried to evade police.

A young Logan man desperate to dodge arrest during a drug run came close to crashing his car into a group of children at the bus stop, a court has heard.

Father-of-two Jayke John Dempsey-Mitchell, 19, pleaded to eight charges at the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Among them was a charge of burglary, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and evading police.

Jayke Dempsey-Mitchell was sentenced to prison at the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Dempsey-Mitchell struggled with a “really bad ice habit” at the time, consuming a substantial amount of methamphetamine daily, the court heard.

According to his lawyer, Dempsey-Mitchell was “going in between places to get drugs” when he drew the attention of police at Shailer Park on December 23.

Given how close it was to Christmas the footpaths were packed with people, so when Dempsey-Mitchell tried to escape apprehension he endangered the lives of several members of the public.

In a schedule of facts read to the court by Magistrate Clare Kelly, officers reveal how Dempsey-Mitchell drove so erratically he had a number of “near misses”, the most concerning of which involved a group of children waiting at a bus stop.

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“You’re lucky you didn’t kill yourself … and you’re lucky you didn’t kill the other people who came into your path,” Magistrate Kelly said.

Dempsey-Mitchell succeeded in escaping arrest that day, but was apprehended a few days later, on December 29, and has been in custody ever since.

He was further implicated in a home burglary that occurred at Logan in the early hours of December 21, when he broke in and stole house keys and a handbag.

“It was in an attempt to get quick finance,” Dempsey-Mitchell’s lawyer told the court.

Dempsey-Mitchell received a head sentence of 16 months imprisonment, with a parole eligibility date of November 14.