Teen arrested after alleged violent robbery at same site as Aidan Becker’s death
Updated ,first published
Police have accused a teenage girl of assaulting and robbing several teenagers in a crime spree in Melbourne’s northeast, including at a recent train station where a young man died trying to protect a teenage robbery victim.
Incidents at South Morang and Mernda train stations have brought the safety of Melbourne’s public transport network back into focus, less than two weeks after the state government announced it would change patrols at the centres.
Police allege the crime spree began in South Morang on Saturday afternoon when a 15-year-old Whittlesea-area girl attacked a 16-year-old girl and stole a purse and jewellery.
Two days later, police at the same station said the same 15-year-old attacked a 16-year-old boy using a glass bottle, leaving him injured in the hospital.
Police said the girl then boarded a train to Mernda and attacked a third person, a girl, along with another girl, immediately after the attack.
In Mernda, the duo trapped the third girl in the station’s elevator and allegedly attacked the victim, stealing her phone and wallet.
The teen faced juvenile court Tuesday afternoon.
The mother of the alleged Mernda victim went on the radio Tuesday.
“I was calling Mernda station to pick him up and as I was heading towards the station I received a call from a number I didn’t recognise,” he told 3AW.
“My daughter was completely hysterical. Someone had given her her phone to contact me and I didn’t understand a word she said; she was in ecstasy. All I could get out was ‘phone, I got beaten, I kicked, I punched, I stole’… I abandoned my car and ran.”
The mother said there were many witnesses to the crime because the station elevator had glass windows.
“They could even hear him screaming, but they couldn’t reach him,” he said. “She is the sweetest, kindest, most caring person you will ever meet and she does not deserve this at all.”
She said her daughter had a black eye and other bruises, but “the ones that were most concerning were the injuries you couldn’t see.”
Mernda station became the focus of Melbourne’s crime concerns in March when 22-year-old Aidan Becker was fatally stabbed while trying to protect a 14-year-old boy from four teenagers trying to rob him. Five people have been charged in Becker’s death.
The incident occurred just before 6 p.m., when protective service officers were to begin patrolling the station.
Following Becker’s death, the state government announced that it would deploy the new violence reduction unit at Mernda station to address youth violence.
In April, the government announced that Mernda and South Morang stations would be among those that would have a permanent presence of protective service officers patrolling the platforms from 5pm.
It is understood the patrol program came into force on April 19 and both offenses occurred before 5pm on Monday.
Police declined to comment on the PSO deployment in relation to the two stations as the matter is before the courts. The state government has been contacted for comment.
This imprint revealed earlier this month that violent crime on the state’s rail network has increased by 33 per cent since the end of the state’s COVID-era lockdowns.
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