No appeal for teen
A violent teen criminal who used a crowbar to split open an elderly woman’s head was embraced by his bleeding victim who extraordinarily told him “I wish I could help you”.
The 80-year-old woman, who suffered an eight-centimeter gash to her face during the “painful and terrifying” home invasion in Townsville last year, told the young intruders: “I’m so sorry, I don’t have any money, I’m poor”.
The Townsville Bulletin can now reveal the attack on Ana Bristowe-lamb in her North Queensland home was the 17year-old boy’s final offence of a seven-month crime spree.
His other crimes included running a taxi driver off the road in a stolen car and robbing him and taking part in a joy ride in a stolen car in Mt Isa, where offenders tried to provoke cops into chasing them, driving past a police station yelling “f--- the police”.
Ms Bristowe-lamb said more than a year on, she still had “flashbacks” about the incident which left her with six stitches in her forehead, blackened eyes and severe bruising to her face.
“Looking at crime now, it concerns me for other people’s safety. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through,” she said.
“I’ve tried to move on with my life but I do still have some flashbacks.”
Despite the trauma she endured, Ms Bristowe-lamb met with one of the other juveniles involved in her attack.
“I gave her a mirror, and I said I wanted her to use this to tell herself she’s beautiful and say positive things to, so she can change her life,” she said.
“I encouraged her to get her life together and try to focus on her goals … she wanted to get a job.”
Adding to her hardship, Ms Bristowe-lamb was diagnosed with cancer after the incident, but she’s hopeful her positive mindset will prevail.
In September last year, the teen who hit the 80-year-old grandmother with a crowbar was sentenced for 21 offences committed during the crime spree.
He was ordered to complete a 20-month detention order to be suspended after serving 10 months.
Convictions were recorded for two of the offences – the armed robbery of the taxi driver trapped in the wreckage of his crashed car at Mt Isa in November 2021, and for the 2022 assault on Ms Bristowe-lamb.
Lawyers for the boy argued convictions should not have been recorded, submitting the sentencing judge did not place sufficient weight on his “exceptionally prejudicial childhood”, mental impairment, remorse and prospects of rehabilitation.
But the Court of Appeal, comprised of justices Debra Mullins, Peter Flanagan and David Boddice, on Friday refused leave to appeal, finding the sentencing judge had given proper regard to the boy’s “tragic” circumstances.
“A review of the sentencing remarks evidences the sentencing judge’s careful consideration of the applicant’s pleas of guilty, his tragic upbringing and learning and other difficulties when structuring a sentence which afforded the applicant the significant benefit of release after serving 50 per cent of the detention period, thereby avoiding serving any time in an adult prison,” the judges wrote.