Teen burglar pleads guilty to stealing rifle, car in two Crocodylus Park break-ins in less than a week

A TEENAGE boy who broke into Crocodylus Park twice in one week while on bail in September, stealing two cars and a rifle has pleaded guilty to a string of offences

The resident man eaters at Crocodylus Park didn’t deter a group of teenage burglars in September. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

A TEENAGE boy who broke into Crocodylus Park twice in one week while on bail in September, stealing two cars and a rifle has pleaded guilty to a string of offences.

The 15-year-old, who cannot be named, faced the Youth Justice Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to burglary, theft and property damage after admitting to breaking into the business with two other teenagers.

The court heard the group climbed over an exterior fence and broke into an office building on September 14 and stole the keys to a LandCruiser which they then drove through a chain-link fence.

The heist was captured on CCTV and the trio drove the car to Karama where it was found damaged the next day.

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Then at about 8pm on September 20, the group again climbed the perimeter fence and this time forced their way into a building containing a gun safe.

After trying to prise it open with a length of rebar, they left to get bigger tools before coming back and this time managing to lever it open.

The group took a .223 calibre rifle from the safe and again pinched a LandCruiser which they drove through the same fence, which had been repaired in the days since the last break in.

Five days later police found the rifle at a residence in Wulagi and a Crocodlyus Park worker found the LandCruiser bogged on Southport Rd north of Darwin River.

Police found the boy’s palm print on the gun safe and he was identified in the CCTV footage and subsequently arrested on September 30.

His lawyer, Koulla Roussos, tendered a report from a youth worker showing the boy’s attendance at school had risen to more than 80 per cent in the last term of this year.

“She describes it as a vast difference from the start of 2020 when (he) had disengaged in the outreach program,” she said.

“I’m impressed by the change around that (he) has shown while being released on bail and being returned to the care of his mother.”

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Ms Roussos asked for the hearing to be adjourned so the court could obtain updated reports on the boy’s progress and he will return to court in February.

“It’s still a bit too soon for the court to be satisfied as to matters that go to objective prospects of rehabilitation,” she said.

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