‘I just needed to kill someone’: Violent youth’s appeal bid quashed

A violent out of control youth who “just needed to kill someone” and brutally stabbed another inmate 28 times has lost his bid for an appeal.

Cleveland Youth Detention Centre. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

A violent out of control youth who “just needed to kill someone” and brutally stabbed another inmate 28 times has lost his bid for an appeal.

The offender with a penchant for assaulting detention centre workers was handed a head sentence of five years detention in June 2024 for 22 offences.

The now 20 year old, who was a minor at the time of offending and can’t be identified, appealed on the basis the head sentence was manifestly excessive and the judge erred in sentencing him as an adult in relation to 20 other offences.

The Queensland Court of Appeal heard while on remand in January 2022 at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville the then 16 year old assaulted two centre workers including a female who he chased, punched in the face and then continued to threaten and lunge at.

She sustained two fractured molars, chipped teeth and a neck strain, the court heard.

A few months later he attacked a case worker at CYDC with a knife to her face.

The court heard that he did not know the case worker and did not feel bad about the attack. The woman suffered a small and permanent scar under her eye and long-lasting effects to her personal life.

Several months after that he was granted bail and resumed his property type offending only to be remanded in CYDC again less than a fortnight later aged 17.

He was charged with a further four offences relating to two CYDC staff members who he threatened with a knife

The most serious offending occurred while he was housed in the “high risk” unit.

Using a knife he robbed a youth detention worker of his keys in a premeditated effort to obtain access to the cell of another youth, the court heard.

He unlocked another juvenile from his cell and together they managed to storm the victim’s cell.

He stabbed the victim in the upper torso, neck, upper back and ribs with his knife, a total of 28 times within the 38 second attack, the court heard.

The victim did not fight back at any stage and the offending only stopped when the assailant was restrained by detention workers.

“I have anger issues and I just needed to kill someone … He was talking shit, I will kill that mother f*****,” the youth told others.

For that he was charged with attempted murder, or, in the alternative, unlawful wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

He pleaded guilty to the latter and the attempted murder charge was withdrawn.

In the Childrens Court of Queensland Judge Jennifer Rosengren sentenced him to five years detention with release after serving 60 per cent for the unlawful wounding with intent which she described as “prolonged, frenzied and brutal”.

Given he was 19 years old when he pleaded Judge Rosengren sentenced him as an adult, but with no greater penalty than he would have received as a child, for a range of other offences.

The attack on the female worker with a knife attracted a six month prison sentence.

The court heard Judge Rosengren declared the accused a “serious repeat offender” but also reduced the detention period he had to serve because of reduced moral culpability due to a prejudicial upbringing and a diagnosis of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

The Court of Appeal ultimately refused the application for leave to appeal the sentences.

“There is no basis at all for concluding that the sentence was a product of the misapplication of principle, unreasonable, or plainly unjust,” Justice Robert Gotterson said in the court’s decision delivered Friday.

Originally published as ‘I just needed to kill someone’: Violent youth’s appeal bid quashed