Minns pledges more help for families of violent children

Premier Chris Minns acknowledged NSW lacks support for families of young offenders while promising more help in the upcoming budget.

Parents struggling to control children who commit serious crimes do not have enough government support to help them cope, Premier Chris Minns has acknowledged.

It comes after The Daily Telegraph reported a mother has begged police for her 13-year-old son to be arrested after he broke into a local business twice on the mid north coast, but was left off with a warning due to his age.

The Minns government is waiting for the results of a review into the functioning of doli incapax – the legal presumption that children between the ages of 10 and 14 do not understand the difference between right and wrong. Police must prove the child knew what they were doing was “seriously wrong” in order to achieve a conviction.

Premier Chris Minns said there was not enough support for families of young offenders. Photo: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

Yet on Monday the Premier acknowledged there is not enough support for families of young children committing serious crimes to prevent reoffending.

He said that for a child covered by doli incapax in court proceedings “it doesn’t mean that the child is found not guilty and put into a support system”.

“It means that the charges are immediately dropped and that’s it, that’s the end of the process,” he said

CCTV images of the break-in at a Thai restaurant in South West Rocks on Monday night. The Restaurant is called Chop 'n Chill. Picture: Supplied

“There’s no wraparound support services, there’s no third parties intervening to help a family in crisis. There’s no education or remedial programs we can run for children – that’s the end of it.

“Their interaction with the government is over and I don’t think that is working for anybody. It’s not working for communities that are seeing cycles of violence.”

Mr Minns flagged more support would be on the way.

“We’re going to have a lot more to say about the care and support for families in crisis across NSW in the budget,” he said.

“What we want to do is be in a position to help young people who are committing these crimes but it’s not happening under the current system, because there’s no capacity for us to intervene.”

Originally published as Minns pledges more help for families of violent children