‘I’ve stolen 300 cars’: Youth

A teen offender born into the care of the state and first locked up at 10, claims to have stolen more than 300 cars in a revealing and heartbreaking firsthand insight into a citywide youth crime wave.

Born to a neglectful mother and an incarcerated father, horrific domestic violence, drug use and rampant alcohol abuse spurred state intervention – but having the government as a guardian has proved a double-edged sword.

The 17-year-old Torres Strait Islander teen, who the Cairns Post has chosen to name Sam, was made a ward of the state from an early age and following a seven-year tour of Queensland youth correctional facilities is now back in Cairns housed within the residential care system.

Placed at a Manunda resi care home at a property with two girls aged 12 after being released from Cleveland Youth Detention Centre, Sam said he dumped his bag there on the first night and rarely returned.

He said youth workers occasionally tried to track him down but he was largely left to roam the streets.

The scars on his face and track marks on his arms tell a story of abuse, hardship and disadvantage in a young life he describes as being a war.

The subject of Child Safety orders since birth, the ice-ravaged 17-year-old never learned to read or write.

Graduating from shoplifting to car theft, Sam had trouble clearly stating why he stole so many vehicles but gave a nod to material gain and the thrill of the chase.

In the past seven years he has been locked up in Brisbane and Townsville youth detention 15 times.

“You get used to it and Cleveland helps a lot in some ways, you sit back, reflect about what we did and why you did it and think about not doing it again,” he said.