Hardline judge hammers ‘soft’ punishments on juvenile offenders

A retired District Court says child offenders often walked from the court “smiling and laughing” after receiving a reprimand or good behaviour order.

A retired District Court judge who was renowned as Queensland’s toughest lawman has condemned the Children’s Court as a ‘revolving door’ where kid criminals are given ‘a slap on the wrist’.

Speaking out after the Alexandra Hills horror, Clive Wall QC said it appeared ‘nothing has changed’ since he slammed the court’s failings in a judicial broadside eight years ago.

In a 2013 speech after a wave of violent juvenile crime on the Gold Coast, Judge Wall said child offenders often walked from the court ‘smiling and laughing’ after receiving a reprimand or good behaviour order.

The veteran judge, whose hard line sentences attracted among the most appeals of all the state’s judges, called on the judiciary to enforce the Youth Justice Act and order parents of child criminals to pay compensation to their victims.

Retired District Court Judge Clive Wall QC.

A rarely-used section of the Act allows such orders to be made if slack parenting contributed to the offence happening.

He echoed sentiments made in 2013 that the focus was too often on the child offender and not on the victim or the community.

Judge Wall, who retired in 2016 after 20 years on the Bench, told the Sunday Mail: “Just from what I’ve read in the press, nothing’s really changed.”

“The Children’s Court is still a revolving door and juveniles are still getting a slap on the wrist.”

Judge Wall called for public safety to be taken into account when releasing juvenile offenders on bail.

“You wouldn’t normally lock a juvenile up for a first offence of unlawful use of a motor vehicle (car stealing) but if they are a repeat offender, the risk to public safety should certainly be considered,” he said.

“I’m not so sure it is at the moment.”

He said lenient sentences meted out by Children’s Court magistrates needed to be more regularly reviewed.