Northern beaches teen gang bashing: Victim’s desperate plea to change youth laws

The victim of a brutal bashing by a young gang led by a 13-year-old has implored Premier Chris Minns to ‘change the laws’ preventing his attackers from being ­convicted.

The victim of a bashing by a young gang led by a 13-year-old, in which his head was stomped 60 times, has implored Premier Chris Minns to “change the laws” preventing his attackers from being ­convicted.

The Sunday Telegraph last week revealed the 13-year-old ringleader of the racially-fuelled attack on a 15-year-old school student in March escaped conviction in the children’s court despite pleas from police and ­prosecutors.

Multiple serious charges against the 13-year-old were dropped, with the victim’s family told his attacker, because of his age, “does not have the ability to form criminal intention” and could not comprehend right from wrong under NSW’s “doli incapax” common laws.

But the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he wanted the NSW Premier to change the law “so other victims don’t have to be let down by the system”.

“At 13 years of age, a teenager should know right from wrong,” the victim said. “Particularly when they have been charged and spoken to by the police on many occasions.

“All teenagers would know it’s criminal to viciously assault another person.

“I hope this brings about a change in the law.”

The mother whose teenage son was attacked. Picture: Tim Hunter

The 15-year-old victim, who described himself as a prisoner in his own home amid constant threats of death from the gang, said he knew the difference between right and wrong “as an eight-year-old”.

The teen questioned how his attackers could not comprehend the nature of the attack, which clinicians said would have killed him if he wasn’t wearing a bike helmet.

Police alleged in a closed children’s court hearing in May that the 15-year-old victim was brutally attacked by the violent youth gang in a shopping centre carpark on his way home from school.

Police facts, cross-referenced with hospital records and footage of the devastating assault, confirmed the teen suffered as many as 60 blows to the head, as he was “repeatedly stomped on”.

The teen gang returned with knives and tasers, shocking the boy in the back and leg, before a stranger “stopped her car to save his life”.

The victim’s mother has made a desperate, impassioned plea to Premier Chris Minns for a change to the law.

Doli incapax “presumes that a child between the age of 10 and 14 years does not possess the necessary knowledge to have criminal intention, that is, the child is incapable of committing a crime due to a lack of understanding of the difference between right and wrong”.

In her letter to Mr Minns this week, the victim’s mother wrote: “On 18th March 2024, our son almost died in a serious assault by a gang of youths in an unprovoked attack.

“The gang repeatedly stomped on his head and chest and electrocuted him with ­tasers. His life was saved by the bike helmet he was wearing and by a complete stranger who stopped her car to save him. The attack was filmed and circulated on social media.”

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley. Picture: Nikki Short

NSW Premier Chris Minns delivering the NSW Government State Apology in the Legislative Assembly for the Laws against Homosexual Acts. NSW state parliament House. Sydney. June 6, 2024. Photo: Louise Kennerley SMH

The mother said youth crime laws prevented her son from seeking justice against the ringleader of his attack.

“We wish to draw this to your attention as an example of our broken justice system,” she told the Premier.

“Our son has received ­repeated death threats since the attack and has to be escorted to and from school for his safety. Victims and the police are all fed up with these young offenders knowing they are untouchable and literally capable of getting away with murder.”

The mother said she hoped the attack on her son could be “a catalyst for change”, while calling for a meeting to discuss the laws with Mr Minns.

Sydney criminal lawyer Patrick Schmidt said he is convinced teens protected by doli incapax laws know they can get away with violent crimes, knowing they will “just get a slap on the wrist”.

Patrick Schmidt, Special Counsel and Criminal Lawyer at Kells Lawyers.

The special counsel at Kells the Lawyers saidthe thresholds surrounding someone’s knowledge of right and wrong — and the tests associated — were “extremely archaic”.

“Violence and maturity has obviously changed with technology,” he said. “Young kids are engaged in acts never seen before.”

Mr Schmidt said the law needed to move with the times.

“I think there should certainly be a change,” he said.

“I can sit here and say that they don’t have the criminal intention, but that’s nonsense.

“They know what they’re doing.

“(The law) makes it close to impossible to reverse the presumption on the prosecuted.”

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley said the details of the attack were “disturbing”.

“The government takes youth crime seriously and this year strengthened laws to keep the community safer,” he said.

“The minimum age of criminal responsibility in NSW is 10 years.

“While doli incapax has existed for centuries, is part of the law across Australia, and has been affirmed by the High Court, it does not give children a free pass.”

Mr Daley said the presumption of doli incapax could be rebutted, “if the prosecution can show the child understood what they were doing was seriously and criminally wrong”.

The High Court of Australia has previously recognised children as young as 10 can possess the ability to understand the serious wrongness of their acts.

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