Teen scoped Earlville parking lot before attacking disability worker with 5yo, court hears

A 13-year-old and her co-offender stalked and targeted a support worker with a 5yo boy in the Earlville Shopping Centre before a shocking attempted robbery, a court has heard.

Earlville Shopping Town on Mulgrave Road, Earlville. Picture: Brendan Radke

A 13-year-old and her co-offender stalked and targeted a vulnerable support worker accompanying a five-year-old boy in the Earlville Shopping Centre before a “terrifying” attempted robbery, a court has heard.

The teenage girl appeared in Queensland Childrens Court in Cairns on Friday where she pleaded guilty to one count of attempted robbery in company.

Crown Prosecutor Sol Bitjenis told the court on May 29 last year, the girl was at the Earlville shopping centre with a 15-year-old boy, “walking around the carpark looking to steal money from unlocked vehicles”.

“They noticed the complainant, a 37-year-old woman and disability support worker, park her vehicle in the car park,” she said.

Ms Bitjenis said the girl planned to approach the woman and steal her vehicle from her thinking the woman was “vulnerable and alone”.

The co-accused prevented the girl from attacking the woman then and there thinking the woman was in the company of another adult.

“They watched the woman and noticed she was only with a small child, they watched her place her car keys in her bag and formed a plan to attack a vulnerable woman with a child,” Ms Bitjenis said.

The prosecutor played the CCTV footage of the moment the girl attacked the woman.

The footage showed the girl walk up to the woman and child with her shirt over her face before grabbing the woman’s hair, striking her in the face and attempting to grab the bag.

During the tussle both the woman and the five-year-old disabled boy were knocked to the ground during the assault before a bystander yelled out causing the teenagers to flee without any of the woman’s belongings.

Ms Bitjenis told the court the pair were captured on CCTV footage leaving the centre laughing.

Both the woman and five-year-old suffered bruising as a result of the assault with the woman telling police she was terrified and shocked by the attempted robbery.

Defence counsel Tim Grau told the court the girl had no prior juvenile history and had not committed any further offences in the eight months since the offence.

Mr Grau said that the girl had lost her grandmother in the lead up to the offending and had been hanging out with a bad crowd of older teenagers.

“She is remorseful, and embarrassed by what she has done and no longer associates with those people.”

Judge Tracy Fantin referred the girl to Youth Justice to undergo a restorative justice order.

Judge Fantin recognised the one day the girl had been held in custody in the watch house and told her if she was any older or had any criminal history she would be in a juvenile detention facility.

Originally published as Teen scoped Earlville parking lot before attacking disability worker with 5yo, court hears