NSW criminal teen young offenders named| List
From vicious attacks to car hoons, these are NSW teen offenders who have landed themselves before the court. See the list.
Police & Courts
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Australia has recorded a worrying rise in the number of teenagers charged with serious offences in the last year, with experts suggesting the surge could be related to lockdown-induced mental health issues.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 17,710 teenage offenders in NSW in 2019-20, which equates to 15 per cent of all offenders.
These are some of the offenders who have faced the consequences of their crimes recently.
From attempted murder to car theft, these teens have made trouble in their communities by turning to crime.
The list of NSW teen offenders includes a machete-wielding attacker, a housemate dispute turned ugly, and a speedy hoon in a Hilux.
Find out what these troublemaking teens have done and how they were punished.
Attempted murder
A 16-year-old and 17-year-old man committed a “callous crime” when they stabbed a teenage girl and left her to die in an Albury house fire.
The two men, who are unable to be named for legal reasons, turned up at the girl’s house on a November night in 2019 and told her they were homeless. The girl’s mother allowed them to stay the night and left the three teens to go to work in the morning.
The court heard after they smoked some cannabis, one of the boys pointed a serrated knife at the 16-year-old girl and pressed it to her throat while he held her in a headlock. When she fell to the ground holding her throat, the other boy pinned her down and stabbed her while the first boy choked her.
The girl was then stabbed in the back and in the temple before she pretended to be dead.
According to the police documents, one of the boys said “We need to end this” before the two set the house on fire and fled. The court heard the girl was left unconscious, bleeding out and engulfed in smoke.
She was saved by neighbours who noticed the fire but sustained three stab wounds to her abdomen, neck, and temple, and required surgery for a perforated liver.
Both teens pleaded guilty to destroying property with the intent to endanger life and causing grievous bodily harm with attempt to murder.
The court heard the men were sentenced as children, despite the “chilling example of human conduct”. The teens were sentenced to an aggregate sentence of seven years, and could be released on parole as early as May, 2023.
Read the full story here.
Nathaniel Barber
A teenager used social media to groom two young girls under the age of 13, even luring one to a home to sexually touch her.
Nathaniel Barber, then 18, used Snapchat to message a 13-year-old girl and Facebook Messenger to talk to a 12-year-old girl in November 2020. The court heard the teen offender used “classic grooming techniques” to engage with the girls online.
After exchanging a number of messages with the 13-year-old, Barber lured her to a house on the Mid-North Coast and sexually touched her on the thigh and vagina, court documents reveal.
In the same month, he was chatting to the 12-year-old, who had told him she was 13, telling her she was “kinda hot for a 13-year-old”. When she said she couldn’t meet up because of her parents, court documents show Barber was insistent.
“I will kidnap u (sic) so I can have cuddles at night,” he told her.
The girl’s father intercepted the messages and arranged for police to arrest Barber when he thought he was meeting with the young girl.
Barber was sentenced to 14 months community corrections order, added to the sex offenders’ register, and ordered to undergo three years of supervised rehabilitation.
Read the full story here.
Casey Holmes
A young woman’s need to document her life on social media led to her arrest for the shocking assault of an unsuspecting father in Thirroul’s William Woodward Park.
Casey Holmes, then 18, posted several 10-second clips to Snapchat of the attack on October 1, 2019. Holmes can be seen kicking the man when he is on the ground and laughing at the injuries she’d inflicted on a 57-year-old father, who is bloody and dazed in the footage.
CCTV footage shows Holmes approaching the man in the park and attacking him for a prolonged period of time. The court heard the Bulli resident suspected the man had been watching her when she went to the park to relieve herself.
The Snapchat videos went viral, with over 90,000 views in a few days, and the court heard Holmes had received death threats. However, Magistrate Michael O’Brien dismissed the attempt to attribute the attack to poor mental health.
“What happened here is she got drunk and became violent as a result of her intoxication,” he said.
She pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was convicted. She was fined $750.
Read the full story here.
Reece Robertson and Kahu Matehe
Two Central Coast teens were involved in a “disgusting and dangerous” brawl after being asked to leave their local leagues club.
Reece Robertson and Kahu Matehe, both 19, were drinking heavily on the night of September 18, 2020, when they were asked to leave the club due to their level of intoxication.
While they were leaving, Robertson and Matehe, and two unknown men started to taunt each other, according to the facts. After being pushed by one of the men, Robertson pushed the other man to the ground. When the second man tried to grab Robertson, he punched him in the face twice.
Meanwhile, Matehe punched the first man in the head about six times and they both fell to the ground before Matehe dragged him for a few metres.
According to the facts, Robertson punched the man eight times in the face and Matehe kicked his face three times while he was on the ground before they walked away.
Magistrate Jennifer Price said “the behaviour was disgusting and dangerous” and the teens had used an “excessive” amount of violence, which luckily hadn’t resulted in significant injury.
She sentenced both teens to 14-month intensive corrections orders and ordered them to abstain from alcohol for six months.
Read the full story here.
Brayden Hosking
A teenager went “from zero to 100” when he went on a crime spree that stretched from North Sydney to Thirlmere in Sydney’s southwest.
Brayden Hosking, 18, bought cigarettes and a Gucci handbag with a stolen credit card before embarking on a long joy ride in a car stolen from North Sydney to the Macarthur region.
On March 6, Hosking began by stealing a credit card and bank card from a car in Dover Heights, which he used to buy cigarettes and a $470 bag from Gucci.
A few days later, the teen found a silver Hyundai i30 parked in North Sydney with the keys inside and drove it all the way to Sydney’s southwest. Deciding that joy ride wasn’t enough, the L-plater drove the car to Thirlmere with a friend, who uploaded social media videos of Hosking driving recklessly and doing handbrake turns.
As he was driving along Thirlmere Way, Hosking lost control of the car and crashed through a fence to hit a parked car. The teen got out of the car to film the damage, and then fled when the owner of the property came out to get his insurance details.
When police arrived on the scene, Hosking tried to flee on foot and ran through several backyards. Pursuing police found him hiding in a shed.
Hosking pleaded guilty to possessing prohibited drug, destroy or damage property, two counts of goods in custody suspected being stolen, two counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception, negligent driving, take and drive conveyance, not give particulars to the owner of damaged property, learner not accompanies, learner not display L-plates and unlawful entry on enclosed lands.
The teen was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order, fined $1,600, and ordered to complete 675 hours of community service.
Read the full story here.
Duygu Arici
A teenage rouseabout avoided jail despite viciously attacking her roommate and kicking her in the head in Wellington.
On April 24, Duygu Arici, 19, attacked her housemate and longtime friend by grabbing her by the collar – breaking her necklaces in the process. While her housemate was on the ground, court documents show Arici held onto her hair and punched her in the face several times.
According to the police facts, Arici spat in her housemate’s face and kicked her in the head before the victim was able to dash to her car. Although she got into the car, facts show Arici continued to punch her and try to pull her out of the car.
Arici later told police her housemate, who had a cut lip and numerous red marks, had hit her first.
“I probably did a bit more to her than she did to me,” she said.
The court heard Arici has a history of violent offences, and this offence breached two court orders to be well behaved.
Arici pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was sentenced to a two year community corrections order.
Read the full story here.
Keith Rex McKenzie
A Hunter Valley teen on his P-plates led police on three high speed chases in the Central Coast, at times reaching more than double the posted speed limit.
Keith Rex McKenzie, 19, was travelling at 95 km/hr in a 60km/hr zone when he was detected by police in his Toyota Hilux. Police engaged in a very short pursuit, which ended when the teen turned in front of two lanes of traffic and drove on the wrong side of the road.
A few minutes later, he was spotted driving through North Gosford where he “skidded through” a red light and drove on the wrong side of the road at 80km/h in a 60km/h zone. The court facts show McKenzie put the community “at significant risk” due to the busy time of day.
He was then spotted in Narara, where he travelled on the wrong side of the road at speed through a red light. When police attempted to block him in, McKenzie sped across two lanes of traffic and blew through a stop sign on the wrong side of the road. He then reached 90 km/hr in a 40 km/h road works zone and sped through another red light, narrowly avoiding several collisions.
The teen was then seen overtaking cars on the wrong side of the road and reaching 130km/h in a 70km/h zone. When McKenzie ran yet another red light, he crashed into a concrete barrier and refused to leave his car. Police were forced to remove him as he resisted arrest.
McKenzie pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to stop during a police pursuit, speeding more than 45km/h over the limit and resisting police. He was sentenced to 14 months in jail and disqualified from driving for two years.
Read the full story here.
Jackson Douglas
A teen used a false Tinder profile to lure a man to a Riverina home and then robbed and kidnapped him.
Jackson Douglas, 19, created a fake profile of a woman on Tinder to lure a man 10 years his senior to a home in Mount Austin after midnight on July 31 last year.
Instead of a hot date, the man was met with Douglas, who threatened him with a serrated steak knife and forced him to hand over $10, a bag of cannabis and his car keys.
Court documents reveal Douglas forced the man into his own car and told him: “as long as you stay calm, don’t scream and don’t draw any attention, you will be fine.”
While he was driving around, the teen led police on a chase which ended when he crashed into a sign. The court heard Douglas was using up to 2 grams of meth a day and committing crimes to fund his drug habit.
Douglas pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery armed with an offensive weapon and was sentenced to four years and three months in jail.
Read the full story here.
Machete-wielding teen
A violent teenage boy “gloated” about nearly amputating a man in a savage attack in Wollongong.
The teen, who cannot be named due to his age, attacked a man in the carpark of a housing complex on March 12, 2019, after a dispute about drugs. According to court documents, the teen swung a machete at the victim’s head but instead hit his arm, which he’d thrown up to protect his face.
The blow nearly cut off his hand and wrist and the teen ran off, leaving the victim in a pool of his own blood. The court heard the victim is permanently disabled after the attack and is considering having his hand amputated to end the severe pain.
It was heard in court the teen has a lengthy criminal history, and was first in police custody at the tender age of 10.
The teen was labelled as a “danger to the public” by the magistrate, who noted his lack of remorse and disinclination to change his ways.
He was sentenced to more than eight years in jail, with a non-parole period of five years and nine months.
Read the full story here.
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