Supervision for youths who attacked gay men
Five Christchurch teenagers involved in a string of “highly premeditated and extremely violent” attacks on gay men have been sentenced to six months’ supervision and ordered to pay reparations.
The result is little surprise to the victims, who told The Press they believe the youth justice system is ill equipped to deal with challenging cases.
The decision made by Judge Quentin Hix at the Christchurch Youth Court yesterday was the result of several months of navigating the complexity of the case and the needs of the perpetrators, aged 14 to 16 at the time of the attacks. Judge Hix was the third judge to oversee the case since July.
Prosecutor Penny Brown told the court she wanted three of the attackers transferred to the District Court, as police were concerned that the Youth Court couldn’t provide adequate psychological assessment and rehabilitation.
She said the case was “very rare”, in that the 10 assaults before the court yesterday were “highly premeditated and extremely violent”.
They were filmed, and in one video an attacker could be heard telling a victim beaten to unconsciousness, “Yeah, go to f... ing sleep”, she said.
However, the defence lawyers and Judge Hix disagreed, saying that if the teenagers ended up in the District Court, they almost certainly faced prison time – a minimum of 10 years, not including discounts for age and cooperation.
Judge Hix said he believed jail could worsen any violent tendencies, and the five young men had shown a willingness to be better.
The court heard how one attacker could have remained unidentified, but turned himself in out of remorse. Another had got a part-time job and started saving money towards reparations for the victims. Neither of those teens were being considered for District Court, but had their sentences downgraded from formal supervision to informal.
Judge Hix didn’t think the attacks were motivated by hatred of the victims’ sexuality, but said the teens may have been radicalised by violent videos they were watching on social media.
However, their victims don’t accept that homophobia wasn’t a motivation.
One victim who attended yesterday’s sentencing said he wanted to walk out at the judge’s comment. Another, Kelly Hopkins, who didn’t attend the sentencing but spoke to The Press afterwards, said: “Then why didn’t they use Tinder and pretend to be an 11-year old-girl? They chose gay men ... they were the predators.”
The five teenagers each received six months of supervision, which came with community service and a psychological assessment.
They have to pay each of their identified victims $500 in emotional reparation, but one victim who suffered significant financial loss will get $2000 from each attacker.
The two victims who attended sentencing told the court how the attacks continued to traumatise them.
Judge Hix acknowledged their strength and courage, saying it brought their victim impact statements to life.
Hopkins said he understood why his attackers received the sentence they did, but he did not think justice was served.
According to charging documents seen by The Press, several more youths were involved in the attacks but didn’t face charges yesterday, as they were either unidentified, referred to Youth Aid, or charges were withdrawn. One is being dealt with in a separate hearing.
In a statement, Detective Senior Sergeant Damon Wells thanked the victims for their bravery.