Juvenile crime in spotlight

TOUGHER love for juvenile offenders was the main message to emerge from a crime-focused community meeting held in Cairns.

Concerned resident Attila Feher-Holan, who operates the Cairns Safe Knights group, which does evening walks around the city, spearheaded the meeting at a Woree park on Saturday afternoon and said he had been inspired by the small but vocal group who turned up to continue his push for action.

He said close to 20 people, including local councillor Cathy Zeiger, were among the group, along with several victims of crime.

“There was definitely a common message coming out and some good ideas,” he said.

“The common one is that the courts and government ... is letting us down. The juvenile prison system is also a fail.”

Mr Feher-Holan said there had been strong support for the reintroduction of a program similar to the Petford Training Camp, a youth training facility operated from 1978-1998 by Geoff Guest OAM.

He said he would now push for meetings with authorities to try and put the community’s opinions forward.

“All I can do is get the community working together with (police) in this fight and really pushing for a workable solution, not just more meetings,” he said.

“Even though it was just a small turnout (on Saturday), it’s given me a boost to keep going.”

Ms Zeiger said it was clear everyone has “had a gutful” in relation to youth crime.

“There’s not an overnight solution and it’s a deep-seated problem, but we’ve got to assist these kids to grow up.”