Isabellah Maher, 19, sentenced over school bomb threats

A teenager who called in two bomb hoaxes at a Geelong school in an eight day period has learned her fate.

Isabella Maher

A teenager who called in bomb hoaxes at a Geelong school in an eight day period has learned her fate.

Isabellah Maher, 19, appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court on Friday, having pleaded guilty in September to a number of charges including making bomb hoax calls, using a carriage service to menace, and aggravated burglary.

Magistrate Peter Mellas placed Maher on a 14-month community corrections order (CCO) involving 100 hours of community work.

At her plea hearing, the court heard that Maher called Grovedale Secondary College on February 6 and told a receptionist: “I’m going to blow up the school you f--kers”.

Following the threat, the school evacuated about 700 students and 100 staff members onto the oval.

She twice called again, staying she was “in D block” and was “going to stab everyone”.

After police were unable to locate a suspect or suspicious items, the calls were deemed a hoax.

Eight days later on February 14, Maher called the school again and said there was a bomb in the school’s theatre, prompting a second evacuation.

Maher was arrested on February 19.

She told police she was in a group chat with students from the school and a female pupil had asked her to call in a bomb threat because “she didn’t want to get to afternoon classes”.

Maher also called in a bomb threat to Berwick Secondary College on February 14 this year and told a receptionist a bomb was going to explode in the library

The court heard Maher, who has an intellectual disability and receives 24/7 support from a team of carers, had a “reduced capacity to make informed decisions and exercise self-control”.

“Her immaturity and diagnosis may mean it may take longer for her to develop consequential thinking,” Maher’s lawyer, Sarah Wood, said.

Ms Wood told the court at Maher’s plea hearing that she was beginning to understand how her behaviour affected others and the consequences that come with those actions.

The court heard Maher was already on a CCO she was placed on by the County Court.

Maher was sentenced on a charge of armed robbery in December 2023.

Maher was on a tram in Flinders St, Melbourne in April last year when she decided to pull a knife on an unknown woman after grabbing the woman’s phone.

Mr Mellas said although he didn’t like concurrent orders “unless there’s a good reason for it”, the County Court would be providing the “real supervision” and he was satisfied the matter could be dealt with by community work.

“You’ve been on a CCO you know what you need to do as part of that,” Mr Mellas told Maher.

Three of the offences Maher pleaded guilty to were Commonwealth offences.

On those, Mr Mellas placed Maher on a bond.

Originally published as Isabellah Maher, 19, sentenced over school bomb threats