Under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (CYFA), Category B Serious Youth Offences are subject to presumptions about the jurisdiction in which they may be heard and sentencing.
The provisions relating to sentencing came into effect on 26 February 2018, and the provisions related to the jurisdictional presumptions came into effect on 5 April 2018.
Practice Direction No 2 of 2018 applies to charges involving Category B Serious Youth Offences from 5 April 2018.
Children’s Court Jurisdictional presumptions
If a child is charged before the Children’s Court with a Category B serious youth offence committed while aged 16 years or over, the Court must consider whether s356(3) has the effect that the offence should not be heard and determined summarily (CYFA s 356(8)).
Section 356(3) provides that the charge must be heard and determined summarily unless:
- the child objects (before the hearing of any evidence); or
- the court considers that the charge is unsuitable, by reason of exceptional circumstances, to be determined summarily.
| Uplift to a higher court if exceptional circumstances exist | |
| Child aged 16 years or over when alleged to have committed a Category B serious youth offence | Recklessly causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence (Crimes Act 1958 s 15B) |
| Rape (Crimes Act s 38) | |
| Rape by compelling sexual penetration (Crimes Act s 39) | |
| Home invasion (Crimes Act s 77A) | |
| Carjacking (Crimes Act s 79) | |
Sentencing presumptions
A court must not make a youth justice centre or a youth residential centre order for a young offender sentenced for a Category B serious youth offence if the young offender has previously been convicted of a Category A or Category B serious youth offence unless the court is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist (Sentencing Act 1991 s32(2C)-(2D)).
