St Kilda machete attack: 15-year-old sentenced for his ‘extremely dangerous’ offending

A teen who chased a man and struck him with a machete after he refused to hand over his car keys and phone has a history of randomly attacking strangers with weapons.

A 15-year-old boy who was out on bail when he slashed a man with a machete in a terrifying armed robbery will only be locked up for three more months despite his “extremely dangerous” offending.

Shocking footage captured the moment the thug chased down the man and struck him with the machete after he refused to hand over his car keys and phone in St Kilda on January 12.

The teen – who cannot be named for legal reasons – pleaded guilty last month to armed robbery, intentionally causing injury and assault over the bloodied attack.

He was sentenced on Thursday to 150 days in youth detention for his “extremely dangerous” offending, which Children’s Court president Jack Vandersteen said went from “bad to worse”.

The teenager slashed a man with a machete in St Kilda. Picture: 7News

“You will be released, but it will not be today,” he told the boy.

“You were on intensive bail and … someone got struck with a machete.”

He added: “This is very much about protecting the community.”

His mother tuned into the hearing via video link, but the court heard he would not be welcomed back to the family home upon his eventual release.

His defence lawyer Karen Chibert said out-of-home care would be arranged for the boy.

“His mother has indicated she’s not in a position to have him back at the moment,” she said.

The court previously heard the teen travelled on the train to Melbourne from a regional Victorian town on January 12 with the machete down his pants.

He struck the man with the weapon on the footpath of a busy St Kilda road, seeming to only stop when he noticed passers-by were filming him.

The victim had to remove his shirt and use it to stem the bleeding from his head.

The wayward youth was in breach of all of his bail conditions, including a curfew, a ban on driving and not to attend Melbourne, at the time of the assault.

The attack seemingly only stopped when the teen noticed passers-by were filming him. Picture: 7News

And it was not the first time he had randomly attacked a stranger with a weapon.

He admitted last month to a crime spree of carjackings and assaults from May last year to his arrest at Southern Cross train station a day after the machete attack.

On May 23, the hoodlum took a large hunting knife, secreted in a Woolworths shopping bag and wrapped in a jumper, to school.

In another incident, on June 10, he asked a friend to film him attacking a passenger on a bus, punching him to the nose with a closed fist for no apparent reason.

On September 7, he was involved in another carjacking at a shopping centre car park, where his female co-accused threatened to stab the victim if the car was not unlocked.

Two days later, a nurse who had finished the night shift was his next victim, putting him in a headlock and punching him three times in an attempted carjacking.

The court previously heard he boasted about his offending online, sending Snapchats to mates of him driving stolen cars on the wrong side of the road and at speeds of up to 180km/h.

Ms Chibert argued her client should be immediately released, given he had spent more than two months in custody where he was the victim of two assaults.

She said he could be supported in the community by a raft of services as he returns to school and pursues an apprenticeship.

“He’s aware that he needs to make changes,” she said.

“He knows what he did was wrong.”

The court heard he has autism and a language disorder, with an IQ of only 62.
But Mr Vandersteen agreed with the police prosecutor who argued the boy needed to serve “more time” for his serious offending.

With 66 days of pre-sentence detention, he will be released in 84 days.

He was also sentenced to a 12-month youth supervision order, without conviction, for his offending prior to January 12 and disqualified from driving for two years.

New “nation-leading” laws banning the sale and possession of machetes were passed in state parliament on Wednesday.

The ban will come into effect on September 1.

Originally published as St Kilda machete attack: 15-year-old sentenced for his ‘extremely dangerous’ offending