Public must be protected from 'violent, manipulative' 14-year-old, judge says

WARNING: Some of the details below may be distressing to readers.

CORNER BROOK, N.L. -- The boy is just 14 -- but his victim was even younger.

In September, he lured a 12-year-old girl to an abandoned building, where he and other youths beat and kicked her and held a knife to her throat.

Then he choked her into unconsciousness.

Now, a Newfoundland judge has sentenced the boy to 10 months -- less 30 days for time already served -- in secure custody and supervision.

Judge Wayne Gorman acknowledged the boy's troubled life -- he suffers from partial fetal alcohol syndrome and was removed from his parents' custody before he was a year old because of their inattention and drug use.

But Gorman rejected Crown and defence suggestions that the boy should be spared secure custody -- the judge said he is simply not ready to return to the community.

"The rehabilitation of young offenders is one of the primary goals of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but it is not the legislation's only goal. In a case such as this the goal of protection of the public must also be stressed," Gorman said in his sentencing decision this month.

"He is only 14 years of age and in desperate need of treatment and supervised control."

The boy's grandmother, who has custody, told officials she had limited control over the boy, and fears what he might do to himself and to others when he goes out.

He pleaded guilty, but the judge says he shows no apparent remorse and has a history of violence and disruption -- he is described by one official as an "out of control, violent, manipulative youth with no concerns for how his actions affect others around him or any regard for following court orders."

He had 125 "behavioural incidents" in Grade 7, and 66 in Grade 8, when he was only in school for an hour a day.

A psychological report says the boy had said he had been involved "in more fights and beatings than he can remember. He stated he has been stabbed and has stabbed others, that he kicked his adversary on the ground and sometimes gets in street fights for no other reason than satisfaction."

Gorman's sentence includes time for multiple crimes this year - including for breaking windows, for a break-in, and for stealing lottery tickets from a Corner Brook mall kiosk.

But it was a Sept. 21 incident that drew most of the judge's attention.

The boy and some other kids skipped school and went to an abandoned building, where they began attacking the 12-year-old girl, who they thought was a "rat."

A knife was put to her throat, she was told to kneel, and she was kicked. She was told the building was a "good place to kill someone" and that her body would not be found.

The 14-year-old boy put her in a chokehold until she passed out, and she was forced into a cooler with a knife against her chest.

On the way back to school, he told her he would kill her if she told anyone. He was arrested the next day.

The Crown and defence had recommended the boy face a sentence of six months of open custody and supervision, with probation. But Gorman said that wouldn't help rehabilitate the boy -- or protect the public from him.

"(He) was involved in a premeditated and well planned assault on a 12-year-old girl in order to exact revenge for what (he) felt was her being a rat. (He) has little insight into his actions and has shown little if any remorse. He has shown no empathy for (her)," said the judge.

"He constitutes a danger to the public and his grandmother."