A 14-year-old girl from Melbourne who faced over 100 charges has been released without any conviction, after her lawyer successfully argued that she was too young to comprehend the consequences of her actions.
Alleged crimes against Jewish community and cyclist
Police allege that the teenager terrorised the Jewish community in Ripponlea and deliberately ran down a cyclist with a stolen car. The cyclist, David, is still recovering from a brain injury sustained in the incident two months ago.
"I spent a couple of days in the Alfred. I was sort of left with a little bit of cognitive impairment," David said. He was riding on St Kilda Street, Brighton, when a stolen car, allegedly driven by the then 13-year-old girl, struck him.
"I was just hunted down. That made a few attempts to knock me over and then, yeah, eventually just completely ran me over," David recounted.
Terrorising the Jewish community
The same teenager was allegedly caught on camera hurling abuse at Jewish pedestrians and driving erratically. A witness recalled the girl shouting, "Yeah, you're f*** Jews, f*** you, go back to your country. Fair, I'm not from here. We're going to kill you all."
Court evidence revealed that the teen had searched on her phone: "How long is a sentence for running someone over?" and "Where do Jewish people live?"
Legal principle of Doli Incapax
The girl's lawyer convinced Victoria Police prosecutors that the case was too strong for the legal principle of Doli Incapax, which presumes that a child aged 13 or under is incapable of committing a criminal offence due to lack of maturity.
"The charges were withdrawn because the police prosecution was unable to rebut the legal presumption that a child aged 13 and under is incapable of committing a criminal offence," a Victoria Police statement read.
Victoria's Attorney General, Sonya Kilkenny, said, "I will do everything to toughen consequences for young offenders to deal with the new types of offending that we are seeing."
Community outrage
The Jewish community has expressed fear and outrage. "It speaks to a greater problem in society when you have people this young forming this level of hatred towards their Jewish friends and neighbours," said Alex Ryvchin of the Council of Australian Jewry.
David, the injured cyclist, believes the legal loophole needs to be addressed. "I think with violent crimes like weaponising a vehicle and intentionally running someone over, it needs to be sort of taken away from that protection of the law," he said.
