First plea under new rules adjourned amid courtoom confusion
The first teenager to face sentencing under Victoria’s “adult time for adult offenses” laws has been charged after carjacking a knife-wielding taxi driver, two hours after the law came into force.
The 16-year-old girl appeared in the Victorian State Court on Tuesday. The brief hearing was filled with confusion as attorneys and the judge tried to interpret the new rules.
This included conflicting views on whether parties should appear in robes or civilian clothes and under what law (the Criminal Code or the Children, Youth and Families Act) decisions should be made.
“There’s a certain etiquette in this court; we’re not Juvenile Court. We have processes,” said robed Judge Scott Johns.
“Each judge will decide according to his own judgment… I will content myself with wearing a jacket and tie for future hearings.”
Johns was told the matter should be adjourned until a youth justice report was completed, but this could take up to 10 weeks to receive, which could delay the sentencing hearing.
The accused sat in the front row of the courtroom throughout the hearing, only entering the podium to confirm his name and plea. In Juvenile Court, this is done through a defense attorney.
Prosecutor Steve Tamburo said the victim, taxi driver Naresh Chawla, was parked at Dandenong station at around 12.30am on February 26 for a shift at Silver Top Taxi, where he had worked for five years.
At around 2.45am, the back doors of Chawla’s taxi opened and a female voice asked him who the booking belonged to.
“Mr Chawla turned around and saw [the teenager]” said Tamburo. “He was leaning over the center console, wearing a black balaclava. His face was right next to hers.”
The teenager and a male offender, also 16 and wearing a balaclava, then sat in the back seat of the taxi and the girl pointed a black-handled knife at the driver’s neck, demanding he leave his keys and phone in the car and get out.
“Mr Chawla was very scared and thought he was going to be stabbed,” Tamburo said.
The driver then left to seek help, while the young girl drove away with her accomplice.
Tamburo said a short time later, a witness was leaving a car wash on Dandenong’s Princes Highway when he noticed a car and two teenagers parked in the middle of the road, surrounded by debris, including its front bumper and part of its headlight.
The witness reported that when he approached to help, the teens “appeared unstable” and ran away.
The pair were arrested at 3.10am after being found walking along Doveton Avenue in Eumemmerring.
“They told police they were hanging out at a nearby park and walking toward the house,” Tamburo said.
“At the police station [the teenage girl] “He gave the police a ski mask that he kept on top.”
Court documents show the stolen car was driven at speeds of up to 180km per hour, with the attacker captured on CCTV passing the knife to his accomplice, who threw it onto the roof of a nearby gym.
The maximum penalty for aggravated auto theft is life imprisonment.
Addressing relevant sentencing regimes, Tamburo wrote that under section 586(1) of the Children, Young Persons and Families Act 2005, the District Court may exercise any of the Children’s Court’s sentencing powers “other than the detention of young people”.
In a victim impact statement read by the prosecutor, the victim said he could no longer work as a taxi driver because his car was damaged. Instead he was renting a vehicle that cost $260 a week.
“I tried the carpool rental but I was scared,” Chawla wrote.
“I always feel like they could hurt me. Sometimes I wake up in fear while sleeping. Luckily, I got out of the car and saved my own life.”
“I don’t know when I’ll get better.”
Defense lawyer Kate Perry apologized to the victim on behalf of her client. He then educated the judge on how things work in the Children’s Court, stating that the new process was altogether “very dark and unclear”, before the judge replied: “We are in the District Court with a different sentencing regime.”
“I am being asked to make findings and findings in accordance with the law,” Johns said. “I have never been to the Juvenile Court in my 35 years of criminal law life.”
Perry asked the judge to order a youth justice report that would “holistically” assess his client’s needs and supports.
The court heard the male offender was sentenced in March to a one-year good behavior bail and ordered to pay $100.
Johns postponed the hearing until July 26 for another plea.
“Adult time for violent crimes” refers to the Victorian era Law requiring children aged 14 and over to bypass the traditional youth justice system and instead appear in adult courts and sentencing for serious crimes.
Prime Minister Jacinta Allan said that under the new laws, children who commit violent crimes such as home invasion, car theft and stabbing someone with a machete will face adult sentences in adult courts.
The maximum sentence that can be imposed in Juvenile Court for any crime is three years, but the District Court can impose sentences of up to 25 years for aggravated home invasion and auto theft.
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