Do you feel happy that violent offenders are treated with kid gloves because they have not reached the arbitrary age of 18?
Victim's life in tatters as violent teen fights jail
A violent teenager with a six-year history of criminal offending is trying to avoid a sentence in an adult prison for a brutal knife attack that has left an intellectually disabled supermarket worker's life in ruins.The 20-year-old was stabbed in the back and received large and deep lacerations to his left arm and both legs and needed five blood transfusions in what his mother described as a callous, heartless and inhumane attack.
A Victorian County Court judge yesterday heard the man had been left seriously physically disabled, was unable to sleep, eat or socialise, had lost his job and now may never achieve his ambition of being a dog trainer.
He said in a victim impact statement he had lost the use of his arm and hand, cannot jog, run, swim, lift weights or bend down, walks with a limp and needs care for day-to-day living.
The offender, who cannot be named as he was aged 17 years and 10 months at the time of the attack in October last year, has 13 pages of prior convictions, all recorded in children's courts from April, 2005.Now 18, he pleaded guilty to charges of intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing injury and theft in a case uplifted from a Childrens Court to the County Court.
Prosecutor Elizabeth McKinnon said he and two others entered the supermarket in Caulfield South about 8.30pm before he was stopped for shoplifting several small items.
Ms McKinnon said he struggled violently with and assaulted two staff members, but when left alone at the back of the store by the "intimidated" staff he removed a 30 centimetre knife from a shelf.
The youth then grabbed the victim by the scruff of the neck and forced him to the rear of the store where he attacked him and left him in a pool of blood...
...The victim's mother, who has been forced to retire from work to care for her son, said in a victim impact statement she and her husband were overseas at the time but flew home immediately "not knowing whether he would live or die".
The defendant's barrister said he would argue that his client, who was "clearly a very vulnerable young man", should ultimately be detained in a youth justice centre rather than adult jail.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victims-life-in-tatters-as-violent-teen-fights... According to your definition, this 17 year-old was merely a child who should be treated like a naughty boy and given a slap on the wrist.