Latest news with #ChildrenCourt
ABC News
27-05-2025
- ABC News
Family flags lawsuit as Victorian teen charged with multiple terror offences
A Victorian teenager has been charged with terror offences, with his father saying he has not seen the charges against his son. Last Thursday, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the home of the 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons. Counter-terrorism officers subsequently charged him with four terror offences, including using a carriage service to make threats to kill, threatening force or violence against groups, and possessing and using violent extremist material. The teen faced a Children's Court hearing last Friday While the AFP confirmed the boy had been charged, it would not say when the alleged offences happened. The teen was remanded in custody at the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct and is expected to re-appear in the Children's Court in coming weeks. It is understood he has been the subject of a year-long investigation by the AFP. The boy's father said dozens of federal police officers raided their home late on Thursday afternoon. He told the ABC he still has not seen the charges against his son. But an AFP spokesperson confirmed the boy had been charged by the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team. "There is no impending threat to the community," she said. "Further comment will be made at an appropriate time." The boy's family said it was pursuing a separate civil lawsuit against police over their actions in investigating their son.
ABC News
08-05-2025
- ABC News
Victorian court strikes out charges against teenagers over Mildura bashing
Charges against two Victorian teenagers who bashed two other girls last year have been dropped on the grounds that they did not understand the severity of their actions. The Children's Court heard the girls, who were aged 12 and 13 at the time, demanded a vape from three girls they knew from social media at a Deakin Avenue entertainment complex in Mildura in late November 2024. "Why are you standing there so scared?" the court was told one of the two young girls said to the trio. "Give us a vape or I'll smack you in the mouth," the court was told the other girl said as she pushed one of the victims against a wall. The court was told the incident was recorded on the older girl's phone by a friend as another person clapped. The pair then dragged two of the three girls around the hallway of the venue, the court heard, and proceeded to punch one of the victims 15 times in the face. The other victim was kicked while she cowered on the ground and tried to protect herself. "It's clearly a violent episode," Magistrate Russell Kelly told the court. The older girl was charged with affray and recklessly causing injury. The younger girl was charged with affray and threatening to cause injury. None of the victims or their families attended the hearing. Prosecutors sought to have the charges continue based on interviews they argued proved the girls knew what they were doing was morally wrong. Doli incapax – the presumption that children younger than 14 are incapable of criminal intent – can be used to protect young offenders from prosecution. The lawyers for the two girls argued that the interviews with police demonstrated that neither girl understood the severity of their actions, their rights when cautioned, or their right to access to legal representation. Magistrate Kelly told the court he was not convinced either girl knew their actions "were morally wrong beyond reasonable doubt" and that the younger girl should have been given access to a lawyer and not just a support person. He told the court he accepted that the girls knew the consequences of their actions and that the older girl knew someone caught doing the wrong thing went to court and could be end up being incarcerated. Magistrate Kelly told the court the younger girl was responding to questions as opposed to offering information. The prosecution withdrew all its charges against the two girls. Youth crime and the age of criminal responsibility have attracted attention in Victoria this year and led to the introduction of new bail laws. Some groups, including Victoria Legal Aid, are calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 14. The national children's commissioner and the Australian Human Rights Commission say Victoria's new bail laws will not make communities safer and will lead to more children being incarcerated.
Irish Times
01-05-2025
- Irish Times
Almost 200 children were responsible for 10 or more criminal cases each in one year
Almost 200 children in the State racked up 10 or more cases each in a single 12-month period, latest Garda figures show. Another 588 children accumulated between four and nine cases each over the course of a year. More than 1,500 had either two or three cases. The figures are contained in the newly published 2023 annual report by the monitoring group for the Garda Youth Diversion Programme. When a person under 18 admits to a crime they are automatically referred to the Youth Diversion Programme for assessment and possible inclusion. READ MORE The programme is designed to keep children out of the criminal justice system and usually ends with young offenders being issued with a caution instead of a criminal conviction. However, if a child is deemed not suitable, they are typically prosecuted as normal in the Children Court. Just over 15,800 children were referred to the programme in 2023, with 1,200 being deemed not suitable for inclusion. The latest figures show that a relatively small number of children are responsible for a large proportion of offences which come to Garda attention. Around 3 per cent (197) of children assessed by the programme had been referred 10 or more times in 2023. Of these, 92 per cent were boys. Each referral may include more than one charge. The figure does not include referrals made in previous years. In total, 29 per cent of children assessed by the programme received more than one referral by gardaí during the year. Children who receive more than one referral are far more likely to be rejected by the programme and therefore prosecuted in the criminal courts, the figures show. While the total number of referrals remained broadly consistent with previous years, there were large increases in some offending categories. There were 643 cases of burglary in 2023, a 43 per cent increase on the previous year. Theft-type offences were the most common offence type. There were 4,971 such referrals in 2023, a 5.3 per cent increase. Robbery and driving-under-the-influence offences increased by 9 and 18 per cent respectively. There were 18 cases of young people transmitting harmful communications. This was made an offence in 2022 under what was known as Coco's law, which was designed to tackled 'revenge porn' and online harassment. Cases involving public order offences fell by 13 per cent to 2,284. Drug offences dropped 14 per cent to 1,607. The monitoring group expressed concern about a 45 per cent drop in 'restorative justice cautions'. These are designed to give the young offenders an insight into their crimes and often involve meetings with victims. The group noted the drop in such cautions was partly down to victims not engaging with the process or offenders withdrawing their admission of responsibility. Further training was promised to address the fall in such cautions.
