7 Teen on merry-go-round

ON CHRISTMAS Eve, North Shore News reporter Anna Marie D’ Angelo told us of the disturbing case of a 15-year-old youth jailed for 18 months,

He'd plead guilty to the brutal “gang” assault of a 19-year-old North Vancouver man which occurred in Lynn Valley last September.

The victim was beaten so badly with a metal bar, he will be disfig- ured for life.

The teen, sentenced under the Young Offenders Act, is protected from public identification by virtue of that legislation. His past, howev- er, is not.

At the time of this offence, he had already been through the sys- tem as a young offender on numer- ous occasions, Among those excur- sions on the judicial merry-go- round, he'd received a 10-month sentence for a minor indiscretion called extortion. Following that, he was again a guest of Her Majesty, this time a 12-month hiatus from the rigors of daily life.

His transgression on that occa- sion; break, enter and theft and pos- session of an unregistered restricted weapon.

One of his co-accused, also a 15-year-old youth who, curiously encugh, cannot be identified, while awaiting his day in court for his involvement in the September inci- dent, joined with 18 or so of his closest pals and, allegedly, seriously hurt another youth in Mahon Park.

In that incident, the victim spent several days in the intensive care unit of Lions Gate Hospital. He was beaten so badly in the head, he was hemorrhaging behind his eyes.

When the young offender appeared in court to be arraigned on the new charges of aggravated assault and robbery, he was released to the custody of his parents and told he was under “house arrest.” Translation, he was grounded. He was told he wasn’t allowed out.

(Be still my trembling heart, for the sword of justice knows no mercy.)

Somehow, the fact he was already on bail for a startlingly sim- ilar attack, seemed to get lost despite the vigorous protestations of Crown Counsel, Mike Brundrett. In fact, the teenager was also awaiting trial on charges which include aggravated assault, robbery, threat- ening a witness and two assault charges stemming from earlier indiscretions.

The mother of the victim in the Mahon Park incident, is terrified, not only for her son, but because she feels it’s only a matter of time until this boy does worse.

Chuck Cadman, whose 15-year- » old son was killed in a brutal act of senseless and gratuitous violence, sees some frightening similarities between this youth and Isaac Dees, the convicted killer of his son, Jesse. .

Dees had already ridden the young offender merry-go-round without any measurable positive effect when he accosted Jesse on a Cloverdale Street. According to Cadman, the North Shore youth is further along the path of no return than Dees was at the time of the murder. When he selected Jesse to be killed, Dees had only been in the system for property offences. He graduated to the big leagues in his first time at bat.

Cadman now heads up the citi- zen’s lobby group Crime Responsibility and Youth (CRY). He wants teens who commit crimes to be actually held responsible for their actions, not just mollycoddled by the system. He also wants the parents of the youths who are ordered by the courts to supervise their children, to be legally and financially held to account for any dereliction in that duty.

Cadman is very pragmatic in his view of youth. Truthfully, he is con-

siderably more forgiving than T would be if my son were killed the way Jesse was murdered.

He works with first-time offend- ers and tries to convince them there is a better way.

However, unlike most of the officials Phave come across in the Ministry of Social Services and Housing or the Ministry of the Attorney General, Cadman believes there comes a point when the youth

can no longer be recavered,

At this point they should not be treated as kids.

In Cadman’s view, if they choose to commit an adult crime of violence, they should be treated as adults in the justice system,

While these words may sound like simple common sense, allow me to direct your attention buck to the youth charged in the Mahon Park attack. He has been dealt with in the

manner prescribed by the system, hy the existing Young Offenders Act. He was “grounded” by the court, put back under the supervision of the very person who has proven unable to control him throughout the first 15 years of his lite,

Five will get you 10 anda doughnut, the next homicide occur- ring in North Vancouver will involve a teenage accused, either on bail or on probation.

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