Vyleen White’s granddaughter ‘didn’t miss a thing … this is the heartbreaking part’
Vyleen White’s horrific death in an alleged attack by a recidivist teen offender has thrown fuel on a war over juvenile justice, but Steven Miles isn’t considering any law changes.
In the hours after a six-year-old girl watched her beloved grandmother die in front of her eyes, she gave investigators a harrowing account that did not miss a thing.
The young girl was able to recall in graphic detail the brutal encounter between 70-year-old Vyleen White and her alleged teenage killer.
Her highly articulate account of her grandmother’s alleged stabbing murder shook even police experienced in dealing with traumatised victims of crime.
The young girl and her grandmother lived together and were exceptionally close, family members say.
So when White said she was going out on a quick trip to the shops on Saturday, her granddaughter was keen to keep her company.
“Aldi had something on special, a computer part, or some little knick-knacks,” said one of White’s daughters, Cindy Micallef.
“She would normally get a treat for (the girl). They’d go to the shop and that was their little time out. Just a nanny-granddaughter thing.”
The trip would cost White her life, allegedly at the hands of a 16-year-old repeat offender on bail who was intent on stealing her car.
Ms Micallef said police had been amazed at the little girl’s account “and the fact it was in such detail”.
“She didn’t miss anything. This is the heartbreaking part. You wouldn’t want any child to see or experience that,” she said.
“Everyone is just lost for words. It has affected everybody.”
A source close to the investigation said the girl’s account had left police “absolutely shaken”.
White’s horrific death has thrown fuel on a political war over juvenile justice, as Queensland communities were joined by police on Wednesday in venting their frustration at recidivist offenders who appear to have no fear of the law or insight into the impact of their crimes.
Youth crime is a central political issue in Queensland after the Palaszczuk government watered down youth justice laws in 2016, making detention a “last resort” sentence for recidivist juveniles and bail the preferred option for those arrested.
Labor has gone back to overhaul the legislation twice since the last election in a bid to crack down on teens who commit crimes on bail, but the number of hardcore repeat offenders has increased.
Internal polling by both major parties reveals crime could decide the October 26 election, where Labor is seeking a fourth consecutive term under new premier Steven Miles.
Mr Miles this week confirmed his government was not considering any new law changes, angering White’s family who want more to be done.
Police have increased bail checks on young offenders but Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy said officers were “frustrated” when courts released serious repeat offenders who go out and commit more crimes.
Police Minister Mark Ryan on Wednesday accused some magistrates of failing to use powers given to them under Labor’s overhauled youth bail laws.
“The courts have every single tool in their toolbox to keep the community safe,” he said, urging magistrates to “reflect on community expectation that the community should be protected”.
Following a horror 2021 Australia Day crash that killed a young Brisbane couple, Kate Leadbetter and Matt Field, the government removed the presumption of bail for repeat juvenile offenders charged with serious offences.
A second suite of reforms, passed by parliament after the 2022 Boxing Day stabbing murder of Emma Lovell, reintroduced penalties for youths who breach their bail conditions.
In her December report, the Childrens Court of Queensland president Deborah Richards said while only in force for a short period, the new law “seems to have resulted in an increase in the number of children in detention on remand. It has not, as yet, resulted in a decrease in offending.”
Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli said Labor had given up on improving youth crime. He promised to immediately remove the legal principle that detention should be used as a “last resort” in youth sentencing.
“If the government continues to say there’s nothing more that can be done, we will continue to put forward the solutions and we will intend to make this an issue so that Queenslanders know that there is a better way than what they’re experiencing,” he said.
Mr Miles has said removing detention as a last resort would be “dangerous” and lead to more hardened criminals.
Just after 6pm on Saturday, in the underground carpark of the Town Square Redbank Plains Shopping Centre west of Brisbane, White and her granddaughter were allegedly confronted by a teenage boy already on bail for armed robbery.
The frail White, 70, had only just started driving again after being laid low by injury. She had arthritis and immense shoulder pain and had only driven a handful of times in recent months, and then only to the local shops.
Her six-year-old shadow was even more defenceless.
When the accused attacker – reportedly from a family of Sudanese refugees – allegedly plunged a blade into her grandmother’s chest, the girl did the only thing she could.
“She literally just saw what happened and bolted up the escalator and just ran into the shops, and the first person she found was a doctor,” Ms Micallef said.
“She was just screaming her lungs out. They were best friends, mum and her.”
Local doctor Ademola Afolabi had been at the shops to “get a couple of sausages”, Ms Micallef said. He and a woman followed the little girl down the escalator, finding White lying in a pool of her own blood.
The woman recognised White as someone she’d seen at church.
“You’d never think that ducking to the shops to get a couple of things would be your last trip ever,” Ms Micallef said.
Police allege the motive was to steal White’s 2009 Hyundai Getz. The car was abandoned less than an hour later, after being used to transport a group of youths described as being of African descent.
White was the carer for her blind husband, Victor. They would have celebrated 50 years of marriage in September. They lived with the girl and her mum, who was saving to buy a house.
Now the girl has been left traumatised, and her mother has been left to try to pick up the pieces.
“Put yourself in her shoes. How would you help your child, seeing this happen?” Ms Micallef said.
More than three years ago, the same centre was the scene of another shocking crime that would have tragic ramifications.
At 8.30pm on September 8, 2020, startled shoppers and workers watched as a group of youths savagely bashed 21-year-old John Wal with baseball bats.
A witness told The Australian that Wal was trying to get into the Woolworths to escape, but the automatic doors didn’t open quickly enough.
Wal’s family arrived in Australia from Sudan as refugees around 2003, when he was about four.
Police allege Wal’s family, from Ipswich, blamed people from Brisbane’s north. On Sunday, September 13, three carloads of men allegedly travelled in convoy from Redbank Plains to O’Callaghan Park in Zillmere, on Brisbane’s northern outskirts. Among them, police allege, were all four of Wal’s brothers. Another group of youths were at the park. In the ambush of them that followed, someone is alleged to have yelled “this is for my brother”. Girum Mekonnen, 19, was stabbed several times and died on the spot. Thirteen people have been committed to stand trial for Mekonnen’s murder.
On Saturday, the violence was against a random stranger. “We are not racist people. We accept everyone, and the leaders of that community have asked for a meeting which I’m happy to do,” Ms Micallef said. “I do not want innocent people targeted, like mothers and children just abused.”
