Three Teens Appear in Magistrates Court
Two 16-year-olds, both said to be still in school but neither in any identifiable school uniform, one accompanied by his father, the other his mother, appeared in Magistrates Court this morning [Mar.29] charged with unlawfully assaulting another person – an adult male – on 20th March 2011. Both pleaded not guilty and a trial date was set.
In addition, a 17-year-old female high school student appeared on a charge of causing wilful damage in the amount of $155.00 to a cycle. The young lady pleaded guilty, apologized and said that she was sorry, that there had been animosity between her friends and that she had followed a wrong example. She said that her grandmother had taken her to see the person whose cycle had been damaged, and that she had made full restitution of the $155.
Asked by Magistrate Warner what lesson she had learned, she said that she had learned to “mind my own business.” The Magistrate said that he hoped that her Grandmother made her do something like scrub floors in order to help her learn how hard it is to earn money and that it is never right to damage other people’s property. The Magistrate gave her an Absolute Discharge.
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Nice to see that no information was published that would ID these teens. It seems that tthe crimes were not that serious so see no need to criminalise them any further. I still think that minor crimes involving teens or young offenders can be dealt with outside of the criminal justice system. After all it takes seven years for a conviction to become spent. So every job application or college application will ask. Talk about criminalising our youth.