Police offer to drop Freddo charges
UPDATE 1.10PM: Negative media coverage forced police to a spectacular back down over criminal charges laid against a 12-year-old alleged to have received a stolen Freddo frog worth 70 cents, the boy’s lawyer said today.
But Peter Collins, the director of legal services with the Aboriginal Legal Service, warned that the boy’s case was not an isolated incident and indigenous children were being over-policed in WA.
Mr Collins said he would be pushing for police to issue a caution against the boy, rather than a referral to a juvenile justice team, after Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan announced police would offer to withdraw the criminal prosecution on two charges of receiving stolen property. The second charge related to a novelty sign.
“It does not matter how many cautions or juvenile justice referrals this boy might have had in the past, no argument the police can mount can convince me it is appropriate to lay criminal charges against a 12-year-old in relation to receiving a stolen Freddo frog and a sign,” Mr Collins said.
“It is clear that the back down has occurred because of this adverse media coverage and if it hadn’t of been for the adverse media coverage, they would have dug their heels in and proceeded with the prosecution…which would have been a monumental waste of resources.
“This is not an isolated incident. This is the thin edge of the wedge, this happens all the time. Aboriginal kids are being charged with really trivial offences which shouldn’t be the subject of criminal prosecutions and which should be the subject of diversion processes.
“They are routinely being hauled before the courts. What is means is the dye is cast very young for Aboriginal kids.”
Attorney-General Christian Porter said the boy’s case was unusual and the move to drop the charges appeared to be a “good decision”.
But Mr Porter refused to concede that the boy’s case reflected broader problems in the juvenile justice system.
“It is a mistake: is it indicative of something wider? I’d have to have better evidence put to me than one mistake over one charge, for one child and one Freddo frog to suggest that there is anything systemically wrong that we are experiencing in terms of police charging,” Mr Porter said.
A spokesman for Mr O’Callaghan confirmed this morning that two charges of receiving stolen property, the second relating to a novelty sign, would be withdrawn on the condition that the boy agreed to have the matter referred to a juvenile justice team.
Mr O’Callaghan’s intervention came less than 24 hours after Acting Supt Peter Halliday defended the decision to take the boy to court and said he was satisfied the actions of police were “entirely appropriate”.
The boy’s case attracted national headlines after the Aboriginal Legal Service described the charges as “outrageously trivial” and raised concerns that the police handling of the matter highlighted problems with the over-representation of indigenous youths in the justice system.
The boy, who pleaded not guilty to the receiving charges in the Northam Children’s Court yesterday, had received two previous cautions and a juvenile justice referral.
But the spokesman for Mr O’Callaghan said a review of the case had revealed that the receiving charges against the boy arose from incidents which had allegedly occurred before his referral to the juvenile justice team on an unrelated charge.
On that basis, the boy had to be treated as though he had not had the benefit of a previous juvenile justice referral.
The case prompted WA Children’s Commissioner Michelle Scott to raise concerns that authorities were not complying with the provisions of the Young Offenders Act which required children to be diverted away from the criminal justice system.
