R v Kai [2024] NSWChC 5

Children's Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Kai [2024] NSWChC 5 Hearing dates: 4 April 2024 Date of orders: 06 May 2024 Decision date: 06 May 2024 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Judge Skinner, President of the Children's Court of NSW Decision: An aggregate sentence of 16 months with a non-parole period of eight months to date from 17 September 2023. Eligible for release to parole on 16 May 2024. Catchwords: CHILDREN – Crime – Assessment of seriousness in stolen car offences – Actions on breach of bonds – Totality – Bugmy factors – Special circumstances Legislation Cited: Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 (NSW) Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) Children (Detention Centres) Act 1987 (NSW) Cases Cited: Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37 DPP (Cth) v De La Rosa (2010) 79 NSWLR 1 Category: Sentence Parties: Kai (Young Person) Rex (The Crown) Representation: Ms Hughes (Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions ('DPP')) Mr Mort (Prosecutor) Mr Atkinson (Young Person) File Number(s): 2022/00185139 Publication restriction: Pseudonyms have been used to protect the identity of the young person and Youth Justice staff.

**NOTE: This judgment was prepared for publishing. It was communicated differently to the young person to accommodate his level of understanding and cognitive capacity.

JUDGMENT 1. Kai was born in 2008 and is now 15 years old. This is a decision on sentence, and I will address Kai directly to explain the decision and the reasons for the decision. He has a right to be heard and a right to participate in the processes that lead to the decisions that affect him (s 6 Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 (NSW) ('CCPA'). 2. Kai, you have pleaded guilty to a number of offences from Moree. I am sentencing you in the Surry Hills Children's Court because some of your offences were committed with other young people who stole a car from Moree then offended around Newcastle, Taree, and Kempsey. The prosecutors and your lawyers agreed that all the charges should be heard by one Judge, and they were listed before me for hearing. The DPP was asked to prosecute those charges because they were complicated – there were five offenders, and the crimes were committed across a large area of NSW. One of the boys was twelve and his offences have been withdrawn by the DPP. You and the other boys have now pleaded guilty to some of those offences, so the Court does not need to hear from witnesses to decide if you committed those crimes, it just needs to sentence you for the crimes you have committed. 3. I will sentence you for crimes you committed during 2023 and early 2024, some prosecuted by the DPP and some prosecuted by the Police. You have other charges listed at two other Children's Court's later this year, which involve further allegations of breaking into houses and using stolen cars. You have not pleaded guilty to those offences, so I am not sentencing you for those today and I am not thinking about them when I give you this sentence. 4. I have to give you a sentence for each charge. I will first talk about all the charges, in the order of the date when they happened. Then I will talk about the seriousness of the charges, and your circumstances at the time you committed the offences and now. I can only sentence you for the offences that are before the Court. Where the facts of those offences tell me about other offending, I cannot take it into account if it hasn't been charged or if it makes one of those offences more serious than the charge that is before the Court.