Shining a light in the darkness: Hiding youth justice from public scrutiny a disservice to all

THOSE who sought to protect young offenders from the media through legislation would have instead deprived them and the rest of the community of the opportunity for the full story to be heard, as revealed in an emotional plea hearing in the Youth Justice Court earlier this month, writes NT News court reporter JASON WALLS.

Detective Senior Sergeant Brendan Linder addresses the media at the scene of a crash which killed 57-year-old Jo Neyens in February.

• Family’s heartbreaking loss laid bare as teen pleads over fatal Tiger Brennan Dr crash in February

Court reporting can be a grim business.

It exposes journalists to the darkest side of human nature and often, a big part of the job is to sit through the horror stories and winnow them into palatable news reports that inform the public while sparing readers the gorier details.

To succeed at it, while keeping your sanity, you have to have pretty thick skin and after a few years covering the NT Court system there’s not much that cuts through anymore.

Whether it’s the latest in a seemingly endless stream of horrific acts of domestic violence or yet another instance of the vile sexual abuse of innocent children, it becomes as water off a duck’s back.

It has to — if you took on all the pain and human suffering laid bare in excruciating detail in courtrooms each day you wouldn’t last a week.

But there’s another side to court reporting which is less predictable and often less appreciated by the public.

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It’s there in the Coroner’s court when judge Greg Cavanagh asks counsel assisting to read from the deceased’s birth certificate as a formal and “moving” acknowledgment of a life lived.

And it was there in the Youth Justice Court when prosecutor Perian Cardiff read from a victim impact statement written by the partner of Jo Neyens, who was tragically killed when a 17-year-old girl took her eyes off the road and crashed on Tiger Brennan Drive in February.

Andrew Goldsworthy’s words were as heartbreaking as they were magnanimous, grieving for the woman he loved as though the couple was “sharing the same soul”, while at the same time urging the offender to make the most of her own young life “to become the best possible version of you”.

“We all wish that you respect and honour the memory of Jo – a wonderful, amazing person you almost met,” he said.

“I want you to give back for what Jo is no longer able to do, I want you to be a positive contributor to society, I want you to find your passion and volunteer, contribute, be present.”

In addressing the young woman directly after the lawyers had had their say, even seasoned Local Court judge Elisabeth Armitage couldn’t hide her emotion.

“It’s a huge loss for her to have died on the road that day, she was a good person and the family miss her terribly and will miss her for the rest of their lives but it sounds like they’re good people too and they don’t want her death to be for nothing, they want her death to be an encouragement, I think, to everybody who knew her to give more and do more,” she said.

“It’s hard to live up to and you don’t have to live up to that every day of your life but they want to encourage you to move forward and to be productive and to be well and to contribute in the ways that you can and that are meaningful for you.

“One of the things that can be very helpful is for people to meet each other, particularly if they’re good people, for the family to see how much this has affected you and how seriously you take it and that you do want to move forward in a way which is as a contributing member of the community.

“No doubt meeting the family and being able to tell them that might be helpful.”

The youth court isn’t covered in the news as often as it might be, for various reasons, but what’s perhaps more surprising is that for a while, there was a real chance the important and moving words you’ve just read would never have been able to be reported at all.

They were all said within the context of a closed court, meaning only people specifically listed in the Youth Justice Act were able to attend.

The only reason you’re reading them now is because of an amendment passed last year which added “a genuine representative of the news media” to that list.

All too often youths who find themselves caught up in the criminal justice system are demonised by those like former Chief Minister Adam Giles who would see “bad criminals” thrown in a “big concrete hole”, even if it “might break every United Nations convention on the rights of the prisoner”.

When all you see is the offence and its consequences these attitudes are easy to understand, the impact of criminal offending by youths can be devastating, whether it ends in tragedy or just leaves victims feeling unsafe in their own homes following a break-in.

Those who argued journalists couldn’t be trusted to report on youth court matters did so in the name of protecting them from harm but the real harm, to them and to the community as a whole, comes when the public is deprived of the full story.

How many would have argued this young woman deserved the “concrete hole” before learning prosecutors accepted the trace amount of cannabis in her system didn’t contribute to the crash and after hearing the words of the grieving family, did not oppose her meeting with them as part of the healing process?

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As Ms Armitage explained to the teenager who caused the crash she’d be adjourning the hearing so conferencing with the victim’s family could be arranged, the teenager apologised as she began to sob.

“No, that’s OK,” Ms Armitage said, “I’m crying too”. And she was.

I nearly did too.

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