Tasmanian teenager on probation over school stabbing

The older teenager appeared before Acting Justice Pierre Slicer last week, having pleaded guilty to wounding.

Releasing his sentencing notes on Monday, Acting Justice Slicer described how the pair were friends before the defendant started dating a “young woman”. She later started “seeing” the 14-year-old boy.

The defendant started threatening the younger boy online, before challenging him to a fight.

They met at a school oval in the state’s south, punches were thrown and the victim was stabbed in the knee.

Acting Justice Slicer said the wound was “minor in nature”.

“The complainant did not provide a victim impact statement, but he told police that he had difficulty in sleeping and became anxious if he saw the defendant with other persons,” he said.

He said the defendant’s life “seemed to spiral out of control” last year, when he committed acts of assault, burglary and stealing.

“He was placed on probation, ordered to undertake community service, supervised, and ordered to attend educational and other programs as directed.”

Acting Justice Slicer said the 18 year old had a “harsh upbringing”, but through court proceedings he had been given the opportunity to seek support through youth programs.

“The defendant's mother and father separated whilst he was a young child and he was raised, as is often the case, by his mother. However, his birth father, who had often been violent to the family, kept returning and inflicting further violence upon the defendant's mother. 

“Imprisonment would destroy all of the work undertaken to help a youth with a life of turmoil, hardship and despair. It would ignore a key object of the criminal justice system of rehabilitation.”

The teenager was convicted and put on probation for 18 months.