A woman has told a court that a violent attack and car theft by three teenage girls at a Queensland shopping centre has left her traumatised and living in fear, with devastating injuries.<\/p>\n
Warning: This story contains graphic details of assault that may distress some readers.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old woman shared her victim impact statement in Cairns Childrens Court on Friday, as her three young attackers were sentenced.<\/p>\n
On the evening of November 5 last year, she was walking to her car at a shopping centre in the Cairns suburb of Edmonton when she was confronted by the girls \u2014 aged 13, 15 and 17 at the time.<\/p>\n
The court was shown CCTV footage of the teens approaching her at about 8:30pm and kicking, punching and stabbing her in the arm, before dragging her to the ground by her hair.<\/p>\n
The woman struck her head during the attack, leaving her temporarily paralysed and suffering a spinal injury.<\/p>\n
After stealing her keys and getting into her car, one of the attackers jumped out to move her legs so they would not be run over as they fled.<\/p>\n
“I will never be the person I was both physically and mentally before the attack,” the woman told the court.<\/p>\n
“Lying on the ground paralysed, I thought, ‘Will these girls just drive over my head and this is the end, I’m about to die?'” she said.<\/p>\n
“Although the physical scars remain from this assault, this incident has greatly affected me in many ways.”<\/p>\n
The woman said she had become a recluse, had changed the locks on her home due to fear, relied on family for support, and was left unable to work.<\/p>\n
Her injuries included a haematoma or brain bleeding, a stab wound, a broken spine requiring a metal cage, and widespread bruising and abrasions.<\/p>\n
The metal cage for her spine later collapsed, forcing the woman to undergo a second spinal surgery.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The court heard the victim had become a recluse since the attack. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)<\/p>\n
“After the attack, I have, and currently have to, take medication for pain relief and will be required to do so in the future,” she said.<\/p>\n
The court heard she had been studying to work with children and young people before the incident, but her recovery had been long and difficult.<\/p>\n
The juveniles were each charged with one count of armed robbery in company with wounding and one charge of unlawfully using a motor vehicle, to which each pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n
No convictions for offenders<\/p>\n
In sentencing the eldest offender, Judge Dean Morzone KC acknowledged the girl’s difficult upbringing.<\/p>\n
He said the young woman, now 18, “lived with domestic violence” and had “witnessed many incidents of violence, emotional and physical”.<\/p>\n
The court heard she had a sibling removed by Child Safety, was placed in and out of care in 2019, and later returned to her family.<\/p>\n
She had also experienced the death of a close friend and was required to give evidence at the coronial inquest.<\/p>\n
“Of course that growing up, affects you,” Judge Morzone said.<\/p>\n
“Probably in the past, you’ve been hurt. But that doesn’t mean now you’ve grown up \u2026 someone else has to pay for that.<\/p>\n
“It’s time for you to take responsibility.”<\/p>\n
Judge Morzone also took into account her previous offending, which included assaulting police.<\/p>\n
The two younger girls agreed to take part in a restorative justice process with no convictions recorded if successfully completed.<\/p>\n
The eldest refused restorative justice, and was sentenced to nine months’ detention, with 50 per cent to be served, and no conviction recorded.<\/p>\n
A chance for rehabilitation<\/p>\n
Despite the trauma, the victim told the court she hoped the teenagers could turn their lives around and she agreed to meet with the offenders as part of a restorative justice process.<\/p>\n
Restorative justice involves a supported process so victims or survivors can have a difficult conversation with those responsible.<\/p>\n
“I would like to see change \u2026 for the youth of our community,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I can only hope that the girls that attacked me are able to have a chance and opportunity to rehabilitate.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman has told a court that a violent attack and car theft by three teenage girls at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44277,43,27088,44,44279,44275,41,39,42,40,44278,44276,27077],"class_list":["post-53004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-victim","tag-headlines","tag-juvenile-justice","tag-news","tag-regional-crime","tag-restorative-justice","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trauma-from-crime","tag-victim-of-crime","tag-youth-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}