Attorney-General appeals 'plainly unjust' sentence for teen who caused triple fatal crash
Last year, a 14-year-old boy, who legally cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to several charges including dangerous operation of a vehicle causing three deaths and grievous bodily harm while excessively speeding.
The teenager was sentenced to six years in detention and was ordered to serve 60 per cent of that in custody.
During his sentencing, the court heard the then 13-year-old stole a car from Maryborough and drove it dangerously and at high speed on roads between there and Hervey Bay in April 2023.
While in Maryborough, he caused a three-car collision, which killed Michale Chandler, 29, Kelsie Davies, 17, and Sheree Robertson, 52. A 23-year-old woman was also seriously injured in the collision.
Earlier this year, Attorney-General Deb Frecklington announced the government would appeal the sentence on the legal ground it was manifestly inadequate.
On Thursday, Crown Prosecutor Chris Cook argued in the Court of Appeal on behalf of the Attorney-General, that the sentencing judge should have determined this case of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle as "the worst category of the offence".
"The only appropriate penalty to impose … was the maximum penalty of seven years detention," he said.
Mr Cook told the court the six-year penalty was "unreasonable" and "plainly unjust", and said it should be increased given the teenager's conduct was "so grievous".
"The sentence imposed … does not reflect the enormity and the seriousness of the offending," he said.
At the time of his sentencing, a Childrens Court judge accepted the offences were "egregious" but had to consider a range of mitigating factors under youth justice legislation when determining his punishment.
This included his young age, early guilty plea, lack of criminal history, disadvantaged childhood, and his rehabilitation prospects.
Mr Cook told the court this was a case "where the mitigating factors shouldn't be reducing the maximum penalty".
"[The sentencing judges] favoured the mitigating approach rather than the community deterrent approach, which is a double edge sword," he said.
The teenager's lawyer Ed Whitton told the court it could not be said the sentencing judge did not have "proper regard to the seriousness of the offending".
"That was front and centre of his honour's consideration," he said.
Mr Whitton told the court it was a "difficult exercise" of sentencing discretion, but submitted it was "appropriately undertaken".
"It is not a lenient sentence by any stretch of the imagination," he said.
"Especially when recording a conviction was also factored into that."
The court heard the teenager was due to be released in December next year and his community supervision order would expire in 2029.
Three Court of Appeal judges have reserved their decision.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
Sean Kingston sentenced to 3.5 years in prison after fraud scheme conviction
Sean Kingston has been sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison for his role in a $1 million fraud scheme. On Friday, before US Judge David Leibowitz handed down Kingston's sentence in a South Florida courtroom, the rapper, 35, apologised and claimed he had learned from his actions, according to the Associated Press, per Page Six. However, Leibowitz denied Kingston's attorney's request to self-surrender at a later date due to health issues, instead ordering the musician to be taken into custody immediately. Kingston, who was wearing a black suit and white shirt, removed his jacket to be handcuffed and was escorted out of the courtroom. In March, Kingston — born Kisean Paul Anderson — and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. Turner, 63, was sentenced last month to five years in prison, which is far less than the maximum 20 years she and her son were each facing. Immediately after being convicted, Kingston — who was allowed to await sentencing at home, while his mum was deemed a flight risk and taken into custody right away — teared up as he asked the US Marshals to 'protect' her. Prosecutors accused the mother-son duo of having 'unjustly enriched themselves by falsely representing that they had executed bank wire or other monetary payment transfers as payment for vehicles, jewellery and other goods purchased by the defendants' without actually having sent any funds. During the trial, Turner admitted to handling her son's finances irresponsibly. She also confessed to creating fake wire transfers. Kingston was arrested in California in May 2024 after a SWAT team raided his Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home; Turner was arrested during the raid. 'People love negative energy!' the Beautiful Girls artist told his Instagram followers at the time. 'I am good and so is my mother! … my lawyers are handling everything as we speak.'
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Matt Wright trial hears allegations of cocaine use and COVID-19 breaches
An "anti-vax" crocodile wrangler, a helicopter pilot's cocaine use and the patchy memory of witnesses struggling to recall key details of a fatal crash scene. These were just snippets from an explosive week of evidence heard by a jury in the high-profile Northern Territory Supreme Court trial against the Outback Wrangler Matt Wright. The star of Netflix reality adventure show Wild Croc Territory has been charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, to which he's pleaded not guilty. The prosecution has alleged Mr Wright tried to obstruct and interfere with investigations into a helicopter crash which killed his co-star Chris 'Willow' Wilson on February 28, 2022. Mr Wright's alleged to have done so with the motive of covering up a culture at his helicopter business, Helibrook, of systemically under-reporting helicopter flying hours — which the prosecution alleges was to avoid costly maintenance requirements for his fleet of choppers. Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has alleged that after the crash Mr Wright was concerned that his "failure to record hours" would be revealed and "he could be blamed for the crash". Mr Wright is not alleged to have been at fault over the crash. The sole survivor of the crash, pilot Sebastian Robinson, took to the stand this week as a key witness in the prosecution's case, in which he branded Mr Wright an "anti-vaxxer" who allegedly asked him to alter flight records just 11 days after the crash which nearly killed him. Now paraplegic and forced to take breaks from giving evidence every 30 minutes, Mr Robinson told the jury of the life-altering injuries he'd been left with from the crash, from losing the use of his legs to a traumatic brain injury he continues to grapple with. He alleged that in March 2022, Mr Wright visited his Brisbane hospital room, with documents in his hand, and asked him to "manipulate hours on my aircraft". "I was obviously laying in a hospital bed," he said. "I was still in a pretty bad way and very confused, and I knew something wasn't right. "And I said, 'I'd think about it.'" While at his bedside, Mr Robinson also alleged Mr Wright deleted items from his phone, including notes about flying hours – an allegation which Mr Wright's barrister David Edwardson KC described as "an absolute falsehood". "Mr Robinson I suggest that, brain injury or not, Mr Wright never touched your phone and never deleted a single message from it," he said. In visiting the hospital, Mr Robinson also alleged that the Outback Wrangler had broken COVID-19 restrictions, due to him being unvaccinated. 'He was an anti-vaxxer," Mr Robinson said. '[To visit the hospital] you had to have a valid COVID certificate … a certificate of vaccination." As the injured former pilot gave evidence via video link to a packed courtroom, Mr Edwardson turned the microscope onto his past illegal drug use. The barrister questioned Mr Robinson on the extent of his past cocaine use, presenting extracted text messages sent and received by the chopper pilot. In one such message from 2019, Mr Edwardson said the pilot wrote: "Footy players in town and want bags." In another, a text conversation was laid bare with a "distant friend" named Morto: Sebastian Robinson: "Might have to come down Monday, crook as a dog." Morto: "Snorting too much coke out of Matty's arse, bro"? In response, Mr Edwardson said "you certainly know that Matt Wright has nothing to do with cocaine, don't you?" "Well, Morto's saying, 'snorting too much coke out of Matt's arse,'" he said. "Are you telling me you've been snorting coke out of Matt's arse?" Mr Edwardson asked. Mr Robinson was also asked whether he was ever a drug dealer, which he denied. "I've used cocaine before … I used to use it, you know, recreationally, maybe a couple of times a year," the witness said. In blood test results after the fatal crash, the court heard Mr Robinson had traces of cocaine in his system, which the prosecution said in its opening statement was "metabolised" and not to blame for the incident. Mr Robinson was also quizzed as to whether he had ever supplied alcohol to liquor-restricted remote Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land, to which replied "to sell, no I did not". The court was shown videos of Mr Robinson appearing to share alcohol with an Aboriginal ranger in Arnhem Land, which the pilot identified as a friend from Maningrida. Earlier in the week, the courtroom hosted a number of other witnesses, from fellow helicopter pilots to a crocodile egg industry manager and a CareFlight nurse. Among those was Jock Purcell, one of the crew involved in the egg collecting mission the day Mr Robinson's chopper crashed in a remote paperbark swamp. Mr Purcell, who was an employee of Mr Wright and also featured in Wild Croc Territory, often struggled to recall key details from the fatal crash site in 2022. At one stage that afternoon, Mr Gullaci questioned whether Mr Purcell was being more forthcoming to questioning from Mr Wright's defence barrister than to the prosecution: "Has your memory improved during the course of the day in giving evidence?" The surviving pilot, Mr Robinson, has also repeatedly said in evidence that he can't remember a lot from the time surrounding the fatal crash. With multiple witnesses giving evidence through the trial, often with differing perspectives of the same scene, the jury was evidently struggling. In a note to Acting Justice Alan Blow, the jury asked whether they could have some clarity to help them navigate the "discrepancies" between witness accounts. "Yes, different people have said different things," Judge Alan Blow said in response. A challenging task ahead for the jury as the trial against the Outback Wrangler gets ever more complex, with evidence set to continue in the NT Supreme Court next week.
Daily Telegraph
2 days ago
- Daily Telegraph
Major changes to working with children checks in Australia
Don't miss out on the headlines from Breaking News. Followed categories will be added to My News. Australia's states and territories have unanimously committed to major changes around working with children checks by the end of the year after a spate of arrests of alleged child predators sparked national outrage. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland had promised a 'banned in one, banned in all' system – in which a person banned from holding a WWCC in one state cannot obtain one in another – would be the 'first item on the agenda' when she met with state and territory counterparts. 'Attorney-Generals today agreed to toughening the system to ensure that if you're banned from holding a working with children check in one jurisdiction, you're banned in all of them,' Ms Rowland said after that first meeting wrapped up on Friday. Under the changes, criminal histories will be updated and shared in real time between jurisdictions, and the criteria that determines who is able to obtain a WWCC will be strengthened. 'It is notable that nefarious individuals have been shopping around the working with children check system and exploiting loopholes,' Ms Rowland said. In May, Victoria Police charged Joshua Dale Brown, 26, with more than 70 offences, including child rape and possession of child abuse material. He was a worker at Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook and had a WWCC. Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Brown was charged with more than 70 offences after allegedly using his job to abuse children. Picture Supplied In July, after a court order was rescinded, it was revealed a 26-year-old Sydney man had been charged in late 2024 with allegedly using his position as an after-school care worker to produce child abuse material with 10 children aged six and under. Australian Federal Police officers allege David William James produced child abuse material of 10 victims, the oldest being six years old. It is further alleged Mr James's offending was linked to his employment with six different out-of-school hours care services in North Sydney and the Sydney CBD between April 2021 and May 2024. David James allegedly used his position as an after-school care worker to make child abuse material. Picture: Supplied Despite earlier concerns a national system would take up to 12 months to implement, Ms Rowland said the national system would be operational by the end of the year. She credited work leading up to the meeting by states and territories, as well as a taskforce within her own department, for the faster delivery. 'These are complex areas, but that is no excuse for saying this is too hard as, let's be frank, has occurred until now,' she said. 'The fact is that we have come together, noting that a significant body of work has occurred in the lead-up to this meeting. It has meant that my department, for example, has established a specific taskforce within it to ensure that there is proper liaison between the states and territories.' Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said the changes had been agreed to by all states and territories. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman The changes stem from the 2015 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Asked why the changes took a decade to implement, Ms Rowland said 'these are complex areas', including IT systems, and in many cases the minister responsible was not the attorney-general. Her message to parents with children abused in the interim was that 'they have been let down by successive governments at all levels'. 'We are here as representatives of the states, territories and Commonwealth to say we're here to make that right, and that is why we are taking decisive action,' Ms Rowland said. She said the government was committed to establishing a 'national continuous checking capability' for states to 'plug into' at a 'cost'. Asked whether a national scheme would stop offenders who had never held a WWCC, Ms Rowland said: 'This is not going to solve every single nefarious actor out there who seeks to do children harm.' Ms Rowland said the changes did not seek to make every state's system the same, instead 'looking for consistency'. She said the key issue in introducing a national scheme was time. The government will consider further reforms to the sector, including whether to make a database public. State governments have grappled with the fallout from multiple high-profile instances of alleged abuse at childcare centres. The Victorian government has said it will require childcare centres to ban personal mobile devices from September 26, and launched an urgent review. NSW Premier Chris Minns on Friday said his government would comply with and make available funds for a national database once it was implemented. ' I think that it's common sense to say that if someone's been struck off in Western Australia, then that's a leading indicator that they shouldn't be able to have a working with children's check in NSW,' Mr Minns said. Originally published as Major changes announced after alleged childcare predators charged
