Five worst juvenile crime cases that shocked Cairns in 2020
From alleged sexual attacks to brazenly flaunting stolen cars on Instagram, these are the disturbing acts that have horrified the Far North and sparked calls for action.
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JUVENILE crime has been the hottest button issue in Cairns and the Far North for years.
Persistent break-ins and car thefts have left residents fuming, while more serious sexual offences committed by those underage have horrified.
Such was the community anger as youth crime rates surged at the start of the year, vigilante groups were formed and the State Government was forced to rewrite legislation initially designed to keep young people out of watch houses.
While COVID offered a small reprieve on these types of offences, the issues remain and juvenile crime was a hot topic during this year’s State Election.
The Cairns Post has hand-picked the most serious cases involving children which have impacted the region during 2020.
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13-year-old Cairns girl
A judge was so concerned for community safety regarding the girl that he made the shock move to overturn a Magistrate’s decision to grant her bail in June.
Despite only just turning 13 at the start of the year, the girl has already racked up a three-page criminal history.
Her most recent offending included her going on a week-long crime spree where she was part of a gang who held up and attacked a woman at a shopping centre, vandalised her school and threatened a convenience store worker with a knife after she was busted stealing chocolate.
She spent 116 days in Cleveland Youth Detention Centre this year, during which time she bashed two guards, before being released upon her sentence in October.
Late last year she also stabbed two people at Cairns Central’s City Beach store while aged just 12 and earlier this year she also punched two teachers at a Cape York school earlier this year.
18-year-old Cape York male – 17 at time of offending
The shocking rape of a woman in her 60s in her Edmonton home shocked the community in February.
The then-17-year-old had been staying in a bail house nearby when he left, broke into the woman’s home and attacked her.
He had been on bail at the time for a sexual offending spree in Cooktown just weeks before where he had entered the residences of multiple victims and tried to assault them.
The boy was just days away from his 18th birthday when he raped the grandmother.
He was handed a hefty seven-year jail sentence in September with two of his victims attending court and later voicing their concerns about bail laws in regards to sex offences.
14-year-old Cairns boy
A teenage boy accused of trying to rape a backpacker had been on bail for two weeks and living in a suburban halfway house before he allegedly dragged another woman into bushes in a terrifying night-time attack and tried to do it again.
The boy allegedly attacked a woman, aged in her 30s, who was walking home at night in November, allegedly dragging her into bushes and ripping off clothing before she managed to fight him off.
In an almost identical alleged incident in late July, he allegedly dragged a 26-year-old tourist behind a Cairns North business late at night, tearing the woman’s clothes off and sexually assaulting her before she fought him off.
The boy’s cases remain before court.
Gold Commodore car thieves aged 12-16
Their brazen photo posing on a gold-coloured sedan posted to social media and shared hundreds of times enraged the Cairns community.
The car theft occurred during the height of a statewide juvenile crime spree with the Commodore stolen from a Yorkeys Knob address in early March.
Some of the five alleged offenders and friends then posed with the car in a picture which was posted to Instagram.
The group was eventually arrested in dramatic fashion in Port Douglas the following day with one of them alleged to have said to police: “Nothing you can do. We’ll be out tomorrow stealing your cars you c***suckers.”
Four of the five were then remanded in custody with the group facing a combined 39 charges.
Their cases have been dealt with in the Cairns Children’s Court.
Three 16-year-old Cairns girls, one 13-year-old Cairns boy
Video footage of a 15-year-old being brutally bashed and taunted in a Cairns park went viral in February.
So graphic was the footage it has now been deemed child exploitation material with two of the group charged with producing and distributing it.
The victim was brutally punched and kicked by the group who “took turns” assaulting her after she was lured to the park beside Bicentennial Rd at Bentley Park.
Two girls, aged 16, including the main offender, have been sentenced in the Cairns District Court for the violent robbery and given probation.
The third girl and 13-year-old boy who are facing the child exploitation charges have had their cases adjourned until early next year where a trial date is expected to be set.
It is believed to be the first test of the legislation in this way around Queensland with a
Cairns judge upholding the police decision to lay the charge during legal argument earlier this year.
Originally published as Five worst juvenile crime cases that shocked Cairns in 2020
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