Teen robber who threw screen at judge has sentence reduced on appeal

A teenager who held up a servo with a hammer and threw part of a TV screen at a Supreme Court judge has walked free from Don Dale after his sentence was reduced on appeal.

• Teenage robber threatens judge, throws TV screen at him before trying to leave the dock

A TEENAGER who held up a servo with a hammer and threw part of a TV screen at a Supreme Court judge has walked free from Don Dale after his sentence was reduced on appeal.

Justice Stephen Southwood jailed the now 17-year-old, who cannot be named, for three years and nine months with a two year non-parole period in July last year for the robbery and contempt of court.

The boy’s then lawyer, Nicola MacCarron, had earlier requested a presentence adjournment following the 2019 robbery when he “very violently expressed a desire to be sentenced without conditions”.

He then threatened to “hurt” Justice Southwood before hurling the plastic frame at him from the dock.

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The boy successfully appealed the sentence and his current lawyer, Ambrith Abayasekara, told a resentencing hearing that while his client had continued to reoffend after the sentence, he had undergone a “marked change” since December.

“He’s really made a decision to really focus and lift his game and he’s thinking about his future,” he said.

Mr Abayasekara said the boy’s reoffending was “not unexpected” given the “pressure cooker type scenario” inside the youth justice centre.

“The sentence that he received, we would suggest, could be characterised as a crushing sentence and it was not one that provided a great immediate incentive for (him) to, I suppose, concentrate on his behaviour in Don Dale,” he said.

Justice Stephen Southwood.

Mr Abayasekara said the original offence was “a really standard juvenile robbery” and there was “no need to put extensive conditions on him” upon his release.

“We accept that in one sense it’s a serious example of a contempt in terms of a threat of violence, attempted violence at the presiding judge,” he said.

“On the other hand we would really make a point of the fact that yes, there was some persistence in the sense that he was restrained by security in the dock but it didn’t go beyond that.”

In response, Crown prosecutor Victoria Engel said the robbery was not typical juvenile offending and releasing the boy without conditions when he was about to turn 18 “would be of concern, not only to the court but also the community at large”.

“Not only was the victim threatened with the claw (hammer), there was also the additional threat and presence of not just the (boy) but the other two offenders,” she said.

In resentencing the boy to a total of two years’ detention, suspended after 15 months, the Court of Criminal Appeal ordered that he be supervised by youth justice officers for another nine months after his release.

The court reserved its reasons.

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