Teen crim charged over hatchet-wielding carjacking ‘self-identifies’ as First Nations during bail bid
A 16-year-old accused of a brutal carjacking with a hatchet has claimed he should be bailed because he “self-identifies” as First Nations — despite his parents telling police he isn’t.
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A teenager accused of wielding a hatchet during a carjacking — one of 70 “mostly assault related” offences he’s been accused of — has told a court he “self-identifies” as First Nations, despite his parents telling police he isn’t.
In a Children’s Court on Friday, police prosecutors said the 16-year-old’s parents had informed officers he had no First Nations heritage and an investigation had revealed no evidence of the teen’s alleged Aboriginality.
Senior Constable Ben Drechsler argued the teen shouldn’t be released on bail because the youth crim had “repeatedly demonstrated his propensity for violence and recklessness”.
“In the last 12 months he has been charged with 70 separate offences, mostly assault related,” he said.
In one incident on April 11, 2025 the teen and a co-accused allegedly assaulted a man on the train between Upfield and Southern Cross stations because he asked them to stop being loud.
The teen and his mate allegedly spat on the man and then repeatedly punched him until he fell before allegedly kicking him while he was down.
In another incident on April 22, the teen and the same co-accused allegedly carjacked an Uber driver on St George Street Crescent in Ashburn.
The teen is accused of wielding a hatchet while his co-accused held a knife to the Uber driver’s throat.
The two allegedly beat the man in the head and face, and the co-accused stabbed the driver in the shoulder before he could escape and the two took off in the car.
He allegedly committed these offences while subject to a youth supervision order — a deferred sentence in the community focused on treatment and rehabilitation — which he was sentenced to for shop thefts, assaults, assaulting police and emergency workers, making threats to kill, intentionally causing injury, robbery, stealing cars and driving dangerously without a licence.
Senior Constable Drechsler said the teen had failed to comply with the youth supervision for “four months”, and was also on bail for a series of other violent offences he allegedly committed since he received the deferred sentence in November last year.
In arguing for bail, the teen’s lawyer told the court he “self-identifies” as First Nations, but did not attempt to argue the court should take that into account.
Instead, his lawyer argued the teen should be released because he wanted to “continue to engage with his behavioural support workers” available to him through the NDIS for his diagnoses of ADHD and autism — despite Youth Justice supporting the move to lock the teen up on remand.
Magistrate Shiva Pillai, who sentenced the teen to his original youth supervision order, said there was “nothing to mitigate” the risk the teen posed to the community, refusing his bail “until some other supports are firmly in place”.
He will return to face Mr Pillai on June 4 to answer for allegedly breaching his youth supervision order alongside the fresh charges.
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