A furious teenager who brutally beat his grandmother with a metal pole after taking his gaming controller has escaped conviction over the ‘savage attack’.
The woman was punched multiple times during the sickening attack the then 14-year-old boy carried out at the Melbourne home they shared at the time in August 2022.
The pole was also used by the teenager to press on his grandmother’s throat during the attack.
The Supreme Court of Victoria heard the boy first attacked his older sister on the morning of the attack after she tried to help her grandmother.
She was hit in the knee and wrist by the pole, but managed to escape and hid in a bedroom closet, where she called the police.
The court heard the grandmother was hit at least on the head, causing a cut before she fell to the ground.
The enraged teen then delivered a series of vicious blows to her back and chest as she lay helpless on the ground, begging him to stop. Herald Sun reported.
“You screamed at her to ‘just lay there and die.’ She was shouting for you to please stop but you continued to attack her,” Judge Amanda Fox said.
The woman was struck several times with the pole during the sickening attack the then 14-year-old boy carried out at the home in Melbourne’s east in August 2022 (photo stock image)
‘[She] panicked; she felt her right wrist and ribs were broken and was afraid the pole would penetrate her chest.”
The court heard the assault occurred after the grandmother asked the teenager to hand over the keys to another Melbourne home she owned at the time.
She was forced to sell the property where the boy and his mother and sisters previously lived due to successive interest rate increases and invited them to live with her.
The court was told the grandmother seized the games console after the boy, who has high-functioning autism spectrum disorder, refused to hand over the keys.
The court heard the teenager did not stop hitting his grandmother even though she urged him to stop (photo stock image)
“At the time of the offense you felt a deep sense of injustice and believed that your grandmother was in the wrong, which led to feelings of anger and retaliation,” Judge Fox told the teen.
It is understood the teen’s disability was undiagnosed at the time.
The court also heard that the teenager was also struggling at the time with the recent move to his grandmother’s house.
The boy, who had previously been charged with attempted murder, told police at the scene in detail what had happened during the attack.
The court heard he had no remorse about the attack and ‘hoped she died’.
The charge against the boy was reduced to intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross domestic violence and common assault.
Judge Fox said the charge was reduced due to his age and disability, despite continued limited remorse for his actions.
He was given a 15-month youth supervision order, which requires him to receive mental health and disability support.