The 16-year-old, who can’t be named for legal reasons, appeared in court on Thursday where his lawyer, Nicola MacCarron, applied for bail on his behalf. The youth stands charged with aggravated robbery and criminal damage.The court heard that the youth had been involved in an aggravated robbery at a shopping complex in the Darwin suburb of Malak, before allegedly damaging a police vehicle in the early hours of the next morning. Crown prosecutor Hamish Riley told the court that fresh evidence had come to light minutes before the bail application from the officer in charge of the case, including CCTV stills of who they would argue was the youth holding a chain in his hand during the robbery. Mr Riley said the Crown would also allege the youth returned to the same shop at a later time and “behaved in a threatening manner” to the shop attendant. He said the shop attendant told police the youth returned and said: “I was the one who held you guys up, how did that make you feel?”
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“The way he was talking and coming at me was very intimidating,” the court heard she told police. However, Ms MacCarron said her client was struggling in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre and wished to be released on bail to attend residential rehabilitation for alcohol abuse. “His time in Don Dale has not been enjoyable, it’s been very hard being away from his family,” she said. “On the night that this alleged offending occurred I am instructed that he was very upset, his mother had been ‘locked up’, in his words, that day. “They (his family) had all been drinking together. When he drinks he just can’t control himself.”Ms MacCarron said being in residential rehab would reduce the likelihood that the youth continued to offend. “It (being in rehab) will militate against any such further offending,” she said. Justice Stephen Southwood denied the youth bail, citing his history of breaching bail. “They are unable to stop a youth leaving a (rehab) facility,” Justice Southwood said. “It is highly unlikely the youth would comply with any conditions of bail.”
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The matter will return to court on January 25.
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