Powerful moment home invasion victim came face-to-face with teen attacker

A woman who suffered seizures after a violent home invasion has opened up about meeting with the teenager who assaulted her and the powerful moment he told her he was sorry.

Leanne Barsby. Picture: Lachie Millard

A woman who suffered seizures after a violent home invasion and almost lost her business due to the resulting financial pressures of the attack has told of the moment she came face-to-face with the offender months after the incident.

Leanne Barsby was asleep in her Murrumba Downs home, north of Brisbane, at the end of 2023 when two youths stormed into the house intent on stealing her car.

While one of the offenders ran off when Ms Barsby woke up, the other one punched her in the chest and head. She suffered seizures for a number of weeks after the incident and now has a detached vitreous – when the gel that fills your eyeball separates from your retina.

Ms Barsby said the situation was made even more frightening when her husband found a knife with one of the offender’s fingerprints on it.

“That was when I really got shaken up,” she said.

“I mean, being beaten up was one thing, but when my husband pulled out the knife … It was very thin and jagged. They could have done a lot of damage. I thought I could’ve been stabbed. I could have been dead. So that’s when it really shook me up for three days.”

Months later, Ms Barsby was asked to participate in a restorative justice program where she came face-to-face with the 14-year-old boy who attacked her.

She was put in a room with the arresting officer, the boy’s mother, a liaison officer and a social worker.

“It was good to sit there and just listen to the day’s events, how it unfolded, how they were thinking, what happened the night before, what it looked like up until the break-in the following morning,” she said.

Leanne Barsby said meeting with her attacker helped heal her. Picture: Lachie Millard

“For me sitting down and then going through the whole day, it was really important to me to see what they took in.

“They thought we were rich, we had alcohol, they got a nice watch, they had a fun joy ride. And then they talked about when the police came, and that’s when the conversation switched to, ‘I was frightened. I was scared’.”

She said the boy also talked about what it was like for him being in detention, saying “it was cold and it was boring”.

Ms Barsby said she listened to what it was like for him and then her victim impact statement was read out.

“My health has been impacted with seizures which has life threatening outcomes,” the victim impact statement said.

“I get panic attacks if anyone rings the doorbell.

“I now suffer anxiety when left alone in the house, my husband is constantly checking on me when he is not home.”

After the victim’s impact statement was read out, she said the boy who beforehand could not even look her in the eye, looked up and apologised.

“He literally verbatim read out what I’d said in the victim impact statement,” she said.

“He was watching my face – you could see my tears, I’m just wiping away my tears. His mother had tears. I think he realised this is a mother.

“He could tell I was a person and he said, “I’m really sorry”, and I felt it, and it was really good for me. It just healed me.

“The mother said “I’m so sorry for what my son did to you, I was shocked, I can’t believe my son did that to you”, she was so sorry.”

Ms Barsby said the experience also helped the boy who has since turned his life around and is now working in a trade.

“It changed my whole mental process, I actually got quite frightened because we did have another group of teens come to the home again,” she said.

“ We were targeted again but it wasn’t them but I thought maybe it was so I was quite fearful and anxious that it was a reprisal but it wasn’t but it’s just that crime has become so prevalent.

“I could get more counselling but I don’t want to relive the past.

“I think the best treatment for me was being there, facing him, seeing who he is, he’s not going to come back.

“I’ve accepted it, I’ve moved on. I’m fine. I’m glad I did it, because I now feel at peace with it all. It’s been a really good process, better than seeing any councillor. Plus, I feel safe.”