Promising athlete to teen delinquent: 14-year-old allegedly stabs Melbourne man five times
A teen who allegedly nearly killed a man during a burglary in Melbourne’s east was a promising athlete who knocked back scholarships to elite schools before he went off the rails, a court has heard.
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A man is lucky to be alive after a teen intruder allegedly stabbed him repeatedly during a terrifying house burglary in Melbourne’s inner east.
The boy, who was 14 at the time of the incident, fronted a Children’s Court on May 20 seeking bail.
The boy, a promising athlete, faces charges including attempted aggravated burglary, intentionally cause serious injury, threat to kill and unlawful assault.
Detective Senior Constable Thomas Crocket told the court the boy and a co-accused allegedly stole kitchen knives from a Woolworths supermarket on March 15 before attempting to break into a family’s eastern suburbs home about 4am the next day.
An occupant inside the house woke up after one of the boys shone a torch through her bedroom window and woke up her father who went to investigate.
The man found the boys allegedly hiding in a bar at the back of the home and tried to grab one of them when he felt five “punches” to his back, Sen-Constable Crocket told the court.
It wasn’t until both boys fled that the man realised he’d been stabbed in the back, neck and arm, Sen-Constable Crocket told the court, with one wound close to his spinal cord.
Another stab wound nearly hit his heart and could have killed the man, Sen-Constable Crocket told the court.
“It’s just luck that the knife missed,” Sen-Constable Crocket said.
DNA tests appeared to match the 15-year-old boy to the knife, Sen-Constable Crocket told the court, and CCTV from the supermarket allegedly showed him stealing the knife.
Sen-Constable Crocket told the court the boy was a promising athlete who knocked back scholarships to elite schools so he could continue to hang around with his delinquent mates.
Leading Senior Constable Melissa Sambrooks told the court the boy was well-known to police and his latest charges represented a frightening escalation in offending.
She also told the court the boy was on seven counts of bail at the time of the alleged offence and police believed no bail conditions could stop him from breaking the law if released.
“He has no regard at all for court bail,” Leading Sen-Constable Sambrooks told the court.
The boy’s lawyer told the delays in court hearings due to the coronavirus meant any time spent on remand could see him spend more time in custody than any sentence that may be imposed.
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He also told the court the boy would not be able to see his family while in custody due to visitation restrictions at juvenile justice centres.
Magistrate Jan Maclean reserved her decision on the boy’s bail, remanding him in custody until June 3.
“The abiding concern as I see it here is risk and the reduction or amelioration of risk to an acceptable level,” Ms Maclean said.
“This is an extremely difficult application, I have to say.”