MAGISTERIAL MADNESS

I want you to imagine a nightmare. A nightmare that I’m sure an elderly Melbourne woman re-lives every day and every night. She was sitting in her living room when a car crashed through the wall of her house with such forced that it partially lodged in the next room.The woman was crushed under the front passenger wheel. And that was only the start of her nightmare.

The driver was 17. He was on a learner’s permit.  He was drunk. The car was a stolen ute. He and his joyriding mates heard the woman calling for help and callously just left her there.
They ran away. They didn’t care if she died. She didn’t but she spent weeks in hospital.

In Children’s Court, Police Prosecutor Stephen Healy detailed what happened after the now 18-year-old stole a Holden ute at a party in Cheltenham as part of a two-month crime wave earlier this year.
He did burnouts and lost control before crashing into the house. His blood alcohol reading was .10.

In court the teenager pleaded guilty to 13 charges including stealing from clothing stores while still on a good behaviour bond and stealing alcohol from two bottle shops.

One presumes he was also charged with car theft and leaving the scene of an accident. If not, why not?

His lawyer says the teenager had suffered significant personal hardship and that alcohol played a major role in his crimes.

The prosecutor, understandably, called for a term in custody pointing out he had shown ‘callousness’ and no remorse.

And here’s the kicker that these days in Melbourne  with our ‘touchy-feeling’ system of justice probably won’t surprise you. Maybe anger you but not surprise you.

Magistrate Thomas Barrett said he was unlikely to sentence the teen to a term of detention. But he has to take part in a ‘group conference’ before sentencing in December. Yeah, that’ll straighten him out – and make the world safer for people like that harmless little old lady sitting in her living room when a drunken hoon wrecked her body and her life. Madness.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009