Police have charged a teenage girl with assaulting and robbing several teenagers in a crime spree in Melbourne’s north-east, including at the train station where a young man recently died while trying to protect a teenage robbery victim.
The incidents at South Morang and Mernda train stations have thrust safety on Melbourne’s public transport network back into the spotlight less than two weeks after the state government announced a shake-up of patrols at the hubs.
Police allege the crime spree began in South Morang on Saturday afternoon when the 15-year-old Whittlesea-area girl assaulted a 16-year-old girl and stole a handbag and jewellery.
Two days later at the same station, police say the same 15-year-old used a glass bottle to assault a 16-year-old boy, leaving him injured in hospital.
The girl then caught a train to Mernda and with another girl assaulted a third person, a girl, directly following the assault, police said.
At Mernda, the two trapped a third girl inside the station’s lift and allegedly assaulted the victim and stole her phone and wallet.
The teen faced a children’s court on Tuesday afternoon.
The mother of the alleged Mernda victim appeared on radio on Tuesday.
“I was calling into Mernda station to pick her up, and as I was pulling to the station I received a call from a number I didn’t recognise,” she told 3AW.
“It was my daughter in absolute hysterics. Someone had given her their phone to contact me, and I couldn’t even understand a word she was saying; she was beside herself. All I could get out was ‘phone, bashed, kicked, punched, stolen’ … I just dumped my car and ran over.”
The mother said there were many witnesses to the crime as the station lift had glass windows.
“They could even hear her screams, but couldn’t get to her,” she said. “She is the sweetest, kindest, most caring person you could meet, who does not deserve this at all.”
Her daughter had a black eye and other bruises, she said, but “it is the injuries you can’t see that are most concerning”.
Mernda station became the focal point of Melbourne’s crime concerns in March when 22-year-old Aidan Becker was fatally stabbed while he was trying to protect a 14-year-old boy from four teenagers attempting to rob the boy. Five people have been charged over Becker’s death.
The incident occurred just before 6pm, when protective service officers were due to begin patrolling the station.
Following Becker’s death, the state government said it would deploy its new violence reduction unit to Mernda station to try to address youth violence at its cause.
In April, the government announced Mernda and South Morang stations would be among those to get a continuous presence of protective services officers patrolling the platforms from 5pm.
It is not yet known if this patrol schedule was in effect when the alleged crimes took place on Monday. However, both crimes occurred before 5pm.
Police declined to comment on PSO deployment relating to the two stations as the matter is before the courts. The state government has been contacted for comment.
This masthead revealed earlier this month that violent offences occurring across the state’s rail network had surged by 33 per cent since the state’s COVID-era lockdowns ended.
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