Teenager sent to detention for separate assaults on teenagers

The Toowoomba boy at just 15 had amassed seven pages of criminal history which included the armed robbery of a taxi driver while armed with a knife.

The 15-year-old pleaded guilty to the attempted robbery of a 15-year-old girl and the assault of a young boy at McDonald’s.

A 15-year-old Toowoomba boy has been sentenced to a period of detention after pleading guilty to the attempted robbery of a teenage girl and the assault of a boy in separate incidents.

The boy, who as a juvenile offender cannot be named, had spent 141 days in pre-sentence custody before fronting the Children’s Court of Queensland in Toowoomba on Friday.

Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie said the boy had already amassed seven pages of criminal history including the armed robbery of a Toowoomba taxi driver held up with a knife.

This attempted robbery involved the teenager being with a group of young people who were heckling a 15-year-old girl and her younger sister.

When one of the group told him to get the girl’s purse, he had tried to take her phone but when he held onto it the others had moved in and punched and kicked her, she said.

The girl’s mother had provided a victim impact statement in which she told of the serious effect the incident had on her daughter who was now medicated for anxiety.

In the other offence, the 15-year-old had punched a young boy in a McDonald’s restaurant on June 12, Ms Petrie said.

At the time of both offences the boy was subject to a 12-month probation order arising from the armed robbery of the taxi driver and a conditional release order imposed just nine days before the assault of the young boy, she said.

The lad’s barrister Jessica Goldie told the court her client’s mother and aunt were in court supporting him.

The teen said he would engage with a psychologist upon his release from detention.

Judge Deborah Richards took into account the 141 days of pre-sentence custody and sentenced the boy to four months detention and placed him on six months probation.

No convictions were recorded.