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The state’s most senior justice has drawn a line in the sand for releasing child offenders on bail after refusing to free a teenager accused of a violent home invasion on an innocent family.
Chief Justice Richard Niall, the head of the Victorian Supreme Court, told the 17-year-old boy that despite his age, stable accommodation, family support, a pending apprenticeship and a long delay before trial he had not reached the bar of exceptional circumstances to warrant his release.
The safety of the community was paramount, Niall said, noting the firearm used in the botched attack from earlier this year had never been found.
“This was a planned and deliberate home invasion. A shot was fired, and the firearm is at large,” Niall told the teenager on Friday. “You will be returned to youth justice.”
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The teenager is accused of being among a trio who drove a stolen Toyota with cloned licence plates to a home in Melbourne’s north around 3am on March 22. There, the group allegedly climbed over the rear fence of the Meadow Heights home before one of them opened fire on an external glass door to gain access, which was captured on nearby CCTV cameras.
Once inside the property, the 17-year-old allegedly filmed the incident on a mobile phone, with footage capturing a woman who was sleeping inside being forced onto the floor and kicked in the head.
“Where is the stuff?” was repeated multiple times.
When a man sleeping in another room woke to the noise, he was hit across the head with a pistol before the three fled.
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The alleged shooter, Niall said, was arrested and detailed his crimes to an undercover police officer, saying the trio didn’t know the victims but that the home invasion has been an attempt to recover drugs, but they got the wrong house.
On May 7, Victoria Police searched the 17-year-old boy’s home as part of another investigation and seized a phone which they allege contained video footage of the Meadow Heights armed home invasion.
Preliminary analysis of fingerprints from a fence at the home also suggested they belonged to the accused.
The prosecution alleges the trio were tasked and paid to perform the job.
The teenager is charged with aggravated home invasion with a firearm and had already been denied bail in the Children’s Court before taking his bid for freedom to the Supreme Court this month.
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Niall said the bail test for charges this serious was that an accused person must display exceptional circumstances, something that would take a case “out of ordinary or norm”.
The state’s bail act, he said, recognised the overarching importance of maximising community safety, as well as the presumption of innocence.
Given the accused was a child at the time, Niall said the court must also consider other factors when deciding bail, including a child’s maturity, level of development, access to education, and the stigma attached to children who are remanded in youth detention.
“Incarceration of children can be very harmful to them. Remanding them in custody is a very serious step,” he said.
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While the chief justice noted that the teenager had no criminal history and that it was his first time in custody, Niall said the charges were serious, and the prosecution case strong.
Niall’s decision comes after a magistrate in a separate case on Thursday slammed the state’s justice system in an extraordinary tirade, labelling the state the “lawless capital of Australia”.
Magistrate Brett Sonnet fiercely criticised Victoria’s justice system from the bench, calling for it to be “completely and utterly revised” as an 18-year-old woman sought bail while facing assault-related charges.
“In this court, it’s almost descended into the Wild West,” he said.
In March 2025, the Victorian government amended the state’s bail act to erase the “remand as a last resort” principle for children and to instead prioritise community safety above all else.
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The state then introduced “adult time for violent crime” changes from February, mandating that children aged 14 and above bypass the youth justice system and instead face adult courts and sentences for violent crimes.
Then-premier Jacinta Allan said under the new laws, children committing violent crimes – such as home invasion, carjacking, injuring someone with a machete – would face adult sentences in adult courts.
In March this year, crime in Victoria was at its highest rate since 2016, with data revealing the crime rate had also increased by more than 19 per cent 2022 to 2025.
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Erin Pearson covers crime and justice for The Age.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement