Boy, 13, charged over alleged sexual assault of female jogger on Dandenong trail

The state government has stayed strong on its vow to lift the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria, even after a teen allegedly pinned down a female jogger and tried to remove her clothes.

Police have charged a 13-year-old boy with sexual assault in Dandenong.

The government has strengthened its commitment to lift the age of criminal responsibility after being asked about a teenager’s alleged sexual assault on a female jogger.

The Allan government plans to lift the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria from the age of 10 to 12 by the end of the year, and to 14 to 2027 – with exceptions of certain “serious” crimes – as part of massive reforms to the youth justice system.

These changes received significant community backlash since it was announced in April 2023.

On Monday, Detectives from the Sexual Crime Squad charged a 13-year-old boy with sexual assault and stalking among others after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 28-year-old woman who was running along the Dandenong Creek trail near Mercer Court in January.

It’s alleged the boy lay on top of her and attempted to remove her clothes but the woman managed to fight him off before calling the police.

The boy fled on his bike towards Tirhatuan Park, with police unable to locate him at the time.

Detectives even set up an information caravan and put posters of the boy captured on CCTV riding his bike in the area in a bid to track him down at the time.

He appeared before an out of sessions court hearing and was bailed to appear at children’s court on Friday.

Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny told media she was unaware of the alleged incident but said reforms would work towards creating “safer communities” by reducing the number of youths passing through the justice system.

“What’s really important when talking about youth offending is to look at the drivers of crime and also to support young people,” she said.

“We want to stop interactions with the criminal justice system and we want to get to these people very early on in the piece so they don’t travel through the criminal justice system.

“What we know is early intervention gets much better results, at the end of the day we all want safe communities to live in and early intervention is a key piece in community safety.”

On Sunday a Brighton resident performed a citizen’s arrest of a 15-year-old boy who allegedly stole his car.

Hours after recovering his vehicle, which had been dumped a few streets away from his house, the 43-year-old Brighton man stumbled upon the alleged offender and chased him down the street before calling the police who arrested the youth.

It comes days after about 200 Bayside residents expressed their concerns about youth crime in the area at a community meeting.

Last year the Herald Sun revealed crimes committed by children as young as ten had risen by a third, while crimes committed by teenagers aged between 14 and 17 years old increased by 32 per cent.