NQ juvie sentenced for serious assault of Cleveland worker under Adult Crime, Adult Time

A boy who spat in an officer’s face and broke into a sleeping woman’s bedroom to steal car keys just spent his 16th birthday behind bars. Here’s the full details of his crimes and punishment.

Cleveland Youth Detention Centre. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

A woman woke up screaming when she opened her eyes to a youth offender in her bedroom who took off with her car keys and stole her vehicle.

On Thursday, the boy was sentenced for the break in along with other charges which included spitting and assaulting staff workers, car theft and destroying a computer he had forgotten the login password to.

The Townsville Magistrates Children’s Court was told the boy who was in the care of Child Safety recently turned 16 at Cleveland Detention Centre and that his crimes spanned from March last year to February this year.

Police prosecutor Jodie Nellis said a woman had been asleep with her children in the house when she heard movement in her bedroom and woke up.

“She saw an unknown person beside her with her keys in his hands,” she said.

“She screamed startling the defendant, he exited through a window that had been opened to enter the (house).”

The boy was later located in Kirwan where he had dumped the car, she said.

While at Cleveland the boy was being escorted back to his cell by staff members before he turned around and spat at one of them in the face, the prosecutor told the court, she said he was also to be sentenced for damaging a smoke detector inside his cell.

In a separate offence at the boy’s residential care, he was being escorted to his unit by a female staff worker when he reached around to touch her thigh multiple times even after she pushed his hand away.

At the same unit the boy was said to have become angry when he couldn’t remember the password to log onto a computer and so he punched and threw four computer monitors, two smoke detectors and one stool.

Ms Nellis said the 16-year-old who has five pages of juvenile criminal history showed a “callous disregard for other people’s property and authority” and suggested a period of detention.

The Cleveland Bay Youth Detention Centre. Picture: Evan Morgan

Defence lawyer Jackson Young from Legal Aid Queensland shed light on the boy’s 22 breaches of bail and said it involved “minor” offences related to his ankle monitor, where he would miss curfew or leave his residential address.

He said the boy had a mild intellectual impairment, foetal alcohol syndrome and diagnosed PTSD due to trauma he suffered before Child Safety transferred him to Townsville.

“He described having no contact with his father for as long as he can remember,” Mr Young said and explained that his mother had been in and out of jail, his brother still lives on Mornington Island and his sister died.

The boy’s lawyer also described difficult conditions at Cleveland due to staff shortages.

He explained that in the last 99 days there had been 41 days where the boy spent less than an hour outside of his cell, and 37 of those 41 days saw less than 15 minutes outside his cell, or no time at all.

Magistrate Richard Lehmann noted that the boy’s diagnosis’ report coincided with his limited insight into how his offending affects other people.

His Honour also acknowledged the boy had vocalised his interest in attending programs at Cleveland for his mental health and anger management but was on a waiting list.

While the boy had spent a total of 148 days in detention so far, he was to remain there as he still has charges to be sentenced for in a higher Children’s Court, the magistrate noted.

He also said the boy’s charge of spitting in the face of a detention officer fell after the Adult Crime, Adult Time legislation changed and were to be sentenced as such.

The boy pleaded guilty to 31 offences, 22 of them being for breaching bail and the others included serious assault, common assault, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, wilful damage and trespass.

He was sentenced to two months detention for the charge of serious assault, with 65 days spent in pre-sentence custody as time already served; four months’ probation for the unlawful use of a motor vehicle and wilful damage and a community service order of 20 hours over one year for breaching bail.

The remainder of his charges were dealt with via reprimand. No convictions were recorded.

Originally published as NQ juvie sentenced for serious assault of Cleveland worker under Adult Crime, Adult Time