Bourke, NSW: How cops were shocked to discover a five-year-old among young criminals wanted for a break-and-enter in bush town
A nursery school child was reportedly one of three young boys who broke into a home in north-west NSW while the owner was asleep to steal her car keys.
“In Bourke … we had a five-year-old child with two 12-year-old children who broke into a property and stole a car,” claimed Paul Pisanos, deputy commissioner of regional field operations for NSW Police.
“In the thirty years I’ve been in law enforcement, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that they allege the three boys entered the woman’s home around 2am last Friday and stole the woman’s Mitsubishi Outlander.
The homeowner woke up to the sound of the intruders as they fled and police later spotted the vehicle in town and attempted to pull it over, leading to a brief pursuit that was called off when police realized the age of the occupants , the police claim.
A five-year-old boy was reportedly among a group who broke into a house and stole a car in the Outback NSW town of Bourke (pictured)
Paul Pisanos of the NSW Police (left), who has a 30-year police career, said he was shocked by the alleged incident (right is the lone Bourke police station)
Police have not yet located the group and the investigation is ongoing. The NSW Department of Communities and Justice is also reportedly involved due to concerns over the boys’ welfare.
The alleged incident is far from an isolated incident: regional towns across Australia, especially those in the Outback, appear to be inundated with reports of youth crime, including burglaries, car thefts, ram raids and vandalism.
A curfew for young people was imposed in Alice Springs this week as the city struggles with a crime wave.
Residential burglaries in the city have increased by 260 percent since 2016 and commercial burglaries have increased by 164 percent over the same period.
Reports from Alice Springs It is said that children as young as eight or nine years old can regularly wander the streets after midnight.
This is nothing new – reports from Bourke ten years ago describe this children from the age of six roam the streets late at night.
Michael Liddle, an Alyawarre man who has lived in Central Australia all his life, told the NT news in January, the Alice Springs scenes at night had counterparts that occurred equally frequently during the day
‘You’ve got a long queue at Centrelink, a long queue at the banks and a long queue at the pubs.
‘There must be a connection. There are no long lines at the schools (at drop-off and pick-up times).’
Car thefts leading to wrecks are a common sight on the streets of the Outback town of Alice Springs
In Alice Springs, further west of Bourke, locals say young people are constantly roaming the streets and taking joyrides
In Moree, northern NSW, Senior Constable David John Henderson faced court this month over a dramatic arrest of a group of teenagers, some as young as 13, who stole a car for a joyride, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
It was estimated the car could reach speeds of 125mph on the highway before police used nails to stop it.
Police body-worn camera footage played in court showed officers holding the boys face down on the tarmac while berating them with comments such as “You ‘damn little bastards’ and ‘How old are you, you little bastard?’
One of the boys claimed they were left with a bleeding lip and a black eye, although Snr. Const Henderson was cleared of an assault charge after his lawyers argued his actions in the heat of the arrest should not be judged retrospectively.
In Alice Springs, police are deploying a further 58 officers to patrol the city during the 6pm to 6am youth curfew, although there will be no punishment if it is broken.
The children are simply returned to their home or a similar safe place, police said.
Marion Scrymgour, federal member for Lingiari, which includes the central Australian city, said this method could be the problem.
“We need to stop walking around here thinking that these children are being taken home to a responsible adult, because in many of these cases there is no responsible adult present,” she said in February.
Ms Scrymgour said she is concerned if the problem is not brought under control. It’s only a matter of time before one of them gets seriously injured.
Labor MP Marion Scrymgour said authorities must stop the ‘pussy-foot’ and crack down on youth crime
Under changes to Northern Territory law in 2022, the criminal age of responsibility was raised from 10 to 12, with then Prime Minister Natasha Fyles saying that “primary school-aged children… are not hardened criminals who should be locked up.”
Ms Scrymgour said that while she did not necessarily disagree with the change, it was clear that it had not delivered any improvements.
She said a wider review of the effectiveness of the Youth Justice Act, which is being considered by Labour, should be a priority to be carried out within a year.
‘I’m not gone and I’m not awake. I just think we need to hurry up and stop thinking that all these measures are working, because they are not.”