‘Nothing’s off the table’: Allan government to explore tougher youth crime measures
The Allan government has announced a new plan to target teenage thugs as police and community anger grows over Victoria’s youth crime crisis.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Two teens who had been bailed despite one being accused of killing a young trainee doctor and the other maiming a schoolboy have finally been held behind bars.
As police and community anger grows over Victoria’s youth crime crisis, the Allan government has also announced a bid to slap ankle bracelets on 50 of the state’s worst youth offenders by the end of the year – with a push for up to 200 to be tracked.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes, who is leading crisis meetings with stakeholders this week, is further investigating how to strengthen laws to allow magistrates to revoke bail more often for repeat offenders.
On Wednesday, the 17-year-old boy accused of being behind the wheel of the car that killed trainee doctor William Taylor in Burwood had his bail revoked after he had skipped a curfew condition and went missing for 52 hours.
The private-school-educated boy, who had gone on the run on Sunday – just 36 hours after being released over the deadly crash – had complained his court-imposed curfew was “harsh” while he was in the middle of VCE studies.
Late on Wednesday, a 15-year-old boy was also remanded behind bars over charges relating to an alleged overnight crime spree committed while on bail for last year’s alleged brutal abduction of schoolboy Bejamin Phikhohpoom, which left him with permanent brain damage.
Ms Symes on Wednesday conceded the government was open to exploring all measures that could strengthen Victoria’s besieged youth justice system and flagged “immediate, short-term system changes”.
“Can we do better? Yes. Is there more to do? Yes. Is everything on the table? Absolutely. I’m open to ideas to do better,” she said.
Premier Jacinta Allan is expected to sit in on some of the meetings conducted by Ms Symes and Police Minister Anthony Carbines in the coming days.
A key focus of talks will be whether bail needs to be revoked in more cases that involve repeat offenders. “I want to see more discussion and more effort put into revocation of bail,” Ms Symes said.
The government will also seek to bring forward plans to track teens on bail through an ankle monitoring program.
But concerns have already been raised, given the trial has only received funding to provide 50 ankle bracelets, while Victoria Police has said it was aware of a cohort of about 100 to 200 repeat youth offenders.
With Victoria’s youth crime crisis increasingly in the spotlight, the Herald Sun last month revealed one of the state’s worst child offenders had 388 charges struck out because of his age – with the 14-year-old allegedly going on to commit more terrifying armed robberies.
Data also released exclusively to the Herald Sun then revealed that youths aged 12 to 17 had breached bail more than 2770 times last year.
Other figures showed young people injured 137 people in six years by crashing cars they had stolen in aggravated burglaries.
The government relaxed bail laws last year after a Victorian coroner labelled them a “complete, unmitigated disaster” following the death of First Nations woman Veronica Nelson in prison.
Shadow attorney-general Michael O’Brien called on the government to reinstate tougher bail tests for repeat serious offenders, as well as the offence of committing a crime while on bail.
“Labor can have all the talkfests they want. They can have all the crisis meetings they want (but) what Victorians need and deserve are practical legal changes to improve community safety,” he said.
But the government said the changes to bail, which came into effect on March 25 this year, hadn’t led to more people being let out on to the streets.
In January this year, 44 young people were on remand, Ms Symes said. That had increased to 62 according to July figures, after the changes were enacted. Currently, 107 youth offenders were in custody, including those on remand.
Accused killer husband fuelled by ‘deep-seated hatred’
A cheating husband was fuelled by a “deep-seated hatred” towards his estranged wife when he brutally killed her in front of their children at their Sandhurst home, a jury has been told.
Martin says he is ‘Aboriginal, not an alien’ in deportation fight
The bikie uncle of AFL star Dusty Martin plans to fight a decision that would see him booted back to New Zealand in court, amid claims “a person who is Aboriginal is not an alien” and can’t be detained.