The first teenager facing sentencing under Victoria’s “adult time for adult crime” laws was charged two hours after the law came into effect after carjacking a taxi driver while armed with a knife.
The 16-year-old girl faced the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday. The brief hearing was awash with confusion as lawyers and the judge attempted to interpret the new rules.
This included conflicting views on whether parties should appear in robes or plain clothes and which act – the Sentencing Act or the Children’s, Youth and Families Act – decisions should be made under.
“There’s a certain decorum in this court; we’re not the Children’s Court. We do have processes,” a robed Justice Scott Johns said.
“Each judge will determine things in their own way … In future hearings, I’m content to wear a jacket and tie.”
Johns was told the matter should be deferred until the completion of a youth justice report, though this could take up to 10 weeks to receive, delaying any sentence hearing.
The offender sat in the front row of the courtroom throughout the hearing, only entering the dock to confirm her name and plea. In the Children’s Court, this is done through a defence lawyer.
Prosecutor Steve Tamburo said that about 12.30am on February 26, the victim, taxi driver Naresh Chawla, was parked at Dandenong station for his Silver Top Taxi shift, where had worked for five years.
About 2.45am, the rear doors of Chawla’s cab opened, and a female voice asked him about who his booking was for.
“Mr Chawla turned around and saw [the teenager],” Tamburo said. “She was leaning over the centre console, wearing a black balaclava. Her face was right next to his.”
The teenager and a male co-offender, also aged 16 and wearing a balaclava, then sat in the back seat of the taxi and the girl pointed a black-handled knife towards the driver’s neck, demanding he leave the keys and his 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 teenage girl drove his car away with the co-offender.
Tamburo said that shortly after, a witness was leaving a car wash on the Princes Highway in Dandenong when he noticed a car parked in the middle of the road, surrounded by debris, including part of its front bumper and headlight, and the two teenagers.
When the witness approached to help, he reported the teenagers were “looking unsteady” and ran off.
The pair were arrested at 3.10am after being found walking along Doveton Avenue in Eumemmerring.
“They told police that they had been hanging out in a nearby park and were walking home,” Tamburo said.
“At the police station, [the teenage girl] provided police with a balaclava, which she had been keeping in her top.”
Court documents show the stolen vehicle had been driven at up to 180km/h, with the offender captured on CCTV passing the knife to her co-offender, who then threw it onto a nearby gym roof.
The maximum penalty for aggravated carjacking is life imprisonment.
In addressing the relevant sentencing regimes, Tamburo wrote that pursuant to section 586(1) of the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, the County Court may exercise any of the sentencing powers of the Children’s Court “except youth detention”.
In his victim impact statement, read out by the prosecutor, the victim said he was no longer able to work as a taxi driver as his car remained damaged. Instead, he was renting a vehicle costing him $260 a week.
“I tried a ride-share rental car but felt scared,” Chawla wrote.
“I always feel like they may hurt me. Sometimes when I’m sleeping, I wake up in fear. Luckily, I left the car and saved my own life.
“I don’t know when I will recover.”
Defence lawyer Kate Perry apologised to the victim on her client’s behalf. She then schooled the judge on the way things operate in the Children’s Court, noting the new process was all “very murky and unclear”, before the judge replied: “We’re in the County Court with a different sentencing regime.”
“I’m being asked to make findings and make determinations in accordance with the law,” Johns said. “In my 35 years in criminal law, I’ve never appeared in the Children’s Court.”
Perry asked the judge to order a youth justice report that would “holistically” assess her client’s needs and supports.
The court heard the male co-offender was sentenced in March to a year-long good behaviour bond and ordered to pay $100.
Johns adjourned the hearing until July 26 for a further plea.
“Adult time for violent crime” refers to Victorian legislation that mandates children aged 14 and older bypass the traditional youth justice system and instead face adult courts and sentences for serious crimes.
Premier Jacinta Allan said that under the new laws, children committing violent crimes – such as home invasion, carjacking, injuring someone with a machete – would face adult sentences in adult courts.
The maximum length of a jail sentence that can be imposed in the Children’s Court is three years for any offence, but the County Court can impose a jail sentence of up to 25 years for aggravated home invasion and carjacking.
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