Girl accused of antisemitic crime spree has 109 charges withdrawn

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has defended her government’s youth crime laws after 109 charges against a 14-year-old girl accused of targeting Melbourne’s Jewish community were withdrawn.

The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was facing charges including reckless conduct endangering serious injury, theft, motor vehicle theft and burglary.

Victoria Police confirmed the charges had been dropped because prosecutors were unable to overcome the legal presumption known as doli incapax.

“The charges were withdrawn because the police prosecution was unable to rebut the legal presumption that a child aged 13 and under is incapable of committing a criminal offence,” a police spokeswoman said.

“This is a high legal threshold that requires the prosecution to prove the child knew their conduct was seriously morally wrong.”

The girl was 13 when the alleged offences occurred.

A children’s court previously heard she was allegedly behind the wheel of a stolen car that rammed into a 45-year-old cyclist in Brighton, in Melbourne’s south-east, on March 30. The cyclist was knocked to the ground and suffered a brain bleed.

“Shortly after that incident, within three minutes, she Googled how long the sentence is for running someone over,” Detective Senior Constable Jarryd Grey told the court.

Other alleged incidents aired in an April 13 hearing included antisemitic remarks shouted at pedestrians in Hampton, Ripponlea and Caulfield, and an allegation that the girl swerved towards a Jewish family in Ripponlea, causing them to run for cover.

“There was a web search on ‘where do Jews live’,” Det Grey told the court.

“She is going out of her way to target a certain community.”

The prosecutor said the girl had allegedly offended an average of 1.45 times a day over 74 days and had “not only repeatedly been behind the wheel of a stolen car, but is weaponising them”.

The court also heard the girl thrived on notoriety and believed it gave her “status in her group”.

Allan said the alleged behaviour was unacceptable and pointed to her government’s bail law reforms, “adult time” sentencing measures for violent crimes and the introduction of a violence reduction unit.

Asked whether it was acceptable that the charges had been dropped because the girl was found not to have met the criminal responsibility threshold, Allan said: “I don’t think it is.”

“I’d suggest most people at most ages know the difference between right and wrong,” she told reporters on Thursday.

Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said the government’s violence reduction unit and tougher crime laws were aimed at preventing serious youth offending.

She said no young person should think they were immune from serious consequences because of the outcome of the case.

Opposition spokesman David Southwick said the withdrawal of the charges did not pass the pub test.

“For that person to be able to Google the punishment but be too young to fit the punishment is completely ridiculous,” he said.