Teen who caused havoc across Melbourne gets jail time

A 19-YEAR-OLD behind a crime spree that included a hammer attack on an Ashwood 7-Eleven has been abusing drugs since primary school, a court has heard.

A TROUBLED teen whose violent crime spree included an attempted armed burglary at a 7-Eleven store in Ashwood had been abusing drugs since primary school, a court has heard.

Kasim Ibrahim, 19, was sentenced to five years and two months behind bars after pleading guilty to 11 charges, including theft and armed robbery, at the County Court of Victoria.

He was wielding a hammer when he and three accomplices drove to the Warrigal Rd convenience store about 1.50am on December 12.

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The youths kicked the locked front glass doors and smashed a hole in the door with the hammer, but failed to gain entry when the shop owner pushed against the door.

They fled back to a parked car, stolen from a Doncaster address five days earlier.

The crimes were part of a string of offences committed by the teen.

The 11 charges included attempted armed robbery and robbery.

He also pleaded guilty to four summary charges uplifted for possession of cannabis, unlicensed driving, failure to stop a vehicle when signalled to and using an unregistered vehicle on a highway.

The teen caused havoc all across Melbourne, committing crimes in Elsternwick, Burwood, Mount Waverley, Laverton North, Hampton Park, Altona Meadows and Chelsea Heights.

A psychological report presented to the court revealed Ibrahim could not even remember committing some of the crimes due to his use of ice.

“When I smoke weed I tend to kick back, but when I have ice I make silly choices,” Ibrahim told his psychologist, Jeffrey Cummins.

“With some of this offending I couldn’t remember I’d even done it, but then I was shown a CD which reminded me of some of what I’d done.”

The report noted Ibrahim had started experimenting with cannabis when he was 12 and by 15, had already become a regular user, smoking up to between a quarter and half an ounce of cannabis daily.

By the age of 16 Ibrahim had taken up ice.

“I sometimes think about the victims and I know they’d be traumatised by what we did,” Ibrahim said.

The report also mentioned Ibrahim had fled the civil war in Sudan when he was about four years old.

His family lived in a refugee camp in Egypt, before emigrating to Australia when he was five.

“I remember just bits and pieces. I witnessed some uncles and family relatives being shot and killed in the Sudan,” Ibrahim said.

Judge James Lloyd Parrish considered there was scope for rehabilitation, but said the nature of offending was “objectively serious”.

The court ordered his days of pre-imprisonment be deducted from the final sentence.

@Anthony Piovesan

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