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Three teenagers accused of violently abducting a schoolboy and leaving him with brain damage were also allegedly involved in the robbery of a 13-year-old girl who was beaten and forced to strip down to her underwear, a court has heard.
One of the teens, a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named because of his age, was on Friday released on bail despite police concerns he had been the principal offender in the schoolboy’s attack.
The victim was a student at Glen Eira College.Credit: The Age
The boy had been charged with 25 offences after he and two others allegedly went on a crime spree in a stolen Volkswagen Tiguan, wielding machetes to steal from vulnerable Melbourne students leaving school for the day.
The Children’s Court heard a 14-year-old boy was put into a six-day coma after the trio allegedly violently abducted him on September 4 in Glen Huntly, in Melbourne’s southeast, as he was walking home.
The vehicle took off as the boy was hanging from a passenger door, dragging him for about 150 metres and then throwing him out of the vehicle.
The teens then allegedly ran over the 14-year-old after he landed on the road.
On Friday, prosecutors revealed the 15-year-old was now facing five fresh charges, including three relating to the alleged robbery of the 13-year-old girl before the Glen Huntly incident.
The teen allegedly lured the girl to a Cranbourne house where other teens repeatedly beat her, punched her in the head and pulled her by the hair while demanding she give them her belongings.
Video of the alleged robbery played to the court showed the 13-year-old girl covering her face as someone screamed “show your face”, removing her tracksuit pants and being beaten as loud music played.
She was given shorts and a T-shirt and told to leave after her own clothes were stolen, the officer said.
A police officer cautioned the magistrate against granting the 15-year-old bail, after he was allegedly seen in the driveway of the Cranbourne house where the victim was attacked.
He said the 14-year-old boy attacked in Glen Huntly faced up to another seven weeks in hospital and had a permanent brain injury, the extent of which was unknown.
A text read in court on Friday showed the 14-year-old girl charged over the incident worried she’d killed the boy after she said he was stabbed. “I have f—ing problems now, I can’t sleep,” she said.
Youth workers supported the 15-year-old’s supervised release on Friday, and the magistrate granted him bail to live with his sister under strict conditions.
The magistrate noted the 15-year-old was a vulnerable young person with an intellectual disability.
However, she also acknowledged the consequences of the alleged crimes for the victims were “significant”.
The court previously heard the 15-year-old was living in a stolen BMW with his mother when police arrested him on September 9.
Police searched their previous home and found smashed windows, doors off hinges and minimal personal items or furniture.
-AAP
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