THE QUEENv.SK

[2012] QChC 6

[2012] QChC 6

CHILDRENS COURT OF QUEENSLAND

JUDGE DICK SC

Indictment No 388 of 2011

THE QUEEN

v.

SK

BRISBANE

..DATE 24/02/2012

ORDER

HER HONOUR:  This is an application for a review of the sentence imposed on the applicant on the 14th of December 2011 in the Mount Isa Childrens Court.  On that occasion she was sentenced in relation to 11 offences, including one assault occasioning bodily harm; five common assault; one unlawful use of a motor vehicle; two wilful damage; one stealing and one public nuisance.  Those offences were committed in breach of a probation order and, in some cases, in breach of successive probation orders.

At the sentence she received a sentence of six months' detention and one day of pre-sentence custody was declared.

The applicant was 12 years of age at the time of offending and sentenced and therefore her age is given special consideration in sentencing and is a mitigating factor of determining the nature of the penalty to be imposed.  It should be noted also that she pleaded guilty to her offences at an early opportunity.

The pre-sentence report indicated she had expressed remorse consistent with her stage of social development.  It is of concern that so many of the offences to which she pleaded guilty relate to assaults and assault occasioning bodily harm, although on each occasion the offence was not at the highest end of the range for that type of offence.

She is a person in the care of the Department of Child Safety and has behavioural issues as a result of poor socialisation and support in her formative years.  She has also had a problem with inhaling solvents.

At the time of sentence, and now, the applicant has not been the subject of the strict requirements of an intensive supervision order and it seems to me that that is a sentencing option.  I am told that it is an option open to children under 13 years of age.

At this child's tender age it is not possible to say that she is without reasonable prospects of rehabilitation and there would be some benefit in the type of intensive order that's envisaged by such a result.  In particular, one would hope that her abuse of volatile substances is an area which would be the focus of such a supervision order.

I set aside the sentence imposed in the Mount Isa Childrens Court on the 14th of December 2011 and, in respect of each of the matters to which she pleaded guilty on that day, I order that no convictions be recorded and that she participate, as directed by the Chief Executive, in an intensive supervision order for a period of four months.

The child must also comply with the requirements set out in section 204 of the Youth Justice Act.

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