‘Anything to keep him alive’: Brisbane mother wants 13-year-old car-stealing son locked up

A Brisbane mother wants her 13-year-old car-stealing son locked up, before he or an innocent bystander is killed.

A Brisbane mother has pleaded with the court system to have her 13-year-old, car-stealing son locked up, before the teenager or an innocent bystander is killed.

The single mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said for 10 weeks her juvenile son was simply given a “slap on the wrist” by the court system.

The plea comes amid a youth crime crackdown with the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk unveiling a suite of reforms in the wake of mother-of-two Emma Lovell’s alleged murder at North Lakes on Boxing Day.

Ms Palaszczuk announced the new reforms on Thursday, which included harsher penalties for boasting about crimes on social media, and that judges will have to consider the bail history of juveniles.

She also took aim at the courts saying they “need to do their job”.

A Brisbane mother wants her 13-year-old son locked up before it’s too late. Picture: Steve Pohlner

But this Ellen Grove mother claims that her son appeared in court 10 times and that each time he was given “another slap on the wrist” because “other (juveniles) have hundreds more charges”.

“It has taken 13 arrests, 69 charges and 30 outstanding charges to get him into a juvenile detention centre but it needs to go further,” she said.

“In a single week we went to court four times – I’ve had (my son) arrested at our house about five times because he would turn up in stolen cars and tell me everything,

“I can’t as a parent, knowing that information, do nothing - I wait for him to go to sleep and then ring the police - I tell my son every time he’s arrested that ‘I love you. I hate what you are doing. I’m getting you arrested because I don’t want to bury you or for you to have to live with killing your friends’,” she said.

The desperate mother said her son’s offending “escalated” up until his latest arrest on Christmas Eve.

“There are so many children sitting in watch houses because the detention centres are full -there needs to be tougher penalties but (the government) just passes the blame,” she said.

She said “peer pressure” has undoubtedly been a factor in her son’s “out of control” behaviour, including being tyre spiked by the police and travelling in the boot of a car from Brisbane to Toowoomba.

The mother is desperate for the courts system to be tougher on her son. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“I’m on anxiety medication and have just started taking antidepressants because I just sit here and cry - I’ve taught him right from wrong,” she said.

“There was a time when my son looked out the window of the unit complex and saw that Dominoes was delivering a pizza across the road from me, he jumped in the car and drove off.”

The mother-of-two said she has been unable to work for 10 weeks because every day is a “struggle”.

“People keep telling me ‘it’s not your fault, you’re not to blame’, but the only time I’ve really slept properly in the last 10 weeks is when he’s been in custody,” she said.

“(The courts) have put a number of conditions on my son including probation, bail and a curfew – but if he’s not (at home) he can’t be charged for it, it just gets brought up in court … I will often ring up at 6:05pm and tell (the police) he’s not here, all anyone can say is ‘thanks for letting us know’.

“Why put conditions on these kids? – it’s just setting them up to fail - If juvie is full that’s not a reason not to lock these kids up.”

Asked whether juvie is a ‘temporary solution’, she said “I advocated for (my son) to go, that was my goal which sounds really terrible as a parent”.

“But after you come out of juvie, everything is pretty much wiped clean,” she said.

Asked whether Emma Lovell’s death ‘hit home’, the mother said “yes – (youth offending) is not localised, it’s everywhere”.

“I will do anything to keep him alive and if that means I have to get him arrested that’s what I’m doing.”