A Sudanese refugee teenager has been jailed for 16 years for murdering beloved Australian grandmother Vyleen White in Queensland, but could walk free in eight.
The now-17-year-old, who cannot be identified due to his age, stabbed Ms White to death in front of her six-year-old granddaughter for her Hyundai Getz in the carpark of the Town Square Redbank Plains Shopping Centre in Ipswich on February 3 last year.
The savage and senseless murder shocked Australia, and was the catalyst for Queensland’s new “adult crime, adult time laws”, although they do not apply to the Ms White’s murderer as they are not retroactive.
Supreme Court Justice Helen Bowskill handed down her decision on Thursday morning, with some of Ms White’s family members reacting in disbelief to the 16-year sentence, with parole set at 60%, meaning he will be eligible for release in September 2033 with time served, The Courier Mail reported.
The killer, who pleaded guilty in July, stared straight ahead and did not react as the sentence was delivered, the Australian Associated Press reported.
The court heard that the then 16-year-old plunged his knife into Ms White’s heart without hesitation while trying to steal her car to use in a robbery with a group of other African teenagers.
The killer did not stop to check on Ms White, who suffered a 17cm-deep wound, and the six-year-old girl was forced to run up an escalator alone to ask for help after first running up to her dying grandmother.
Justice Bowskill took into account the murderer’s guilty plea, which she said showed he had taken responsibility for the crime, came from a loving family who still support him despite his actions, and told him: “I also accept that you feel ashamed for what you have done”.
But she also called the killer “callous and cowardly”, noting that a “defenceless” Ms White had raised her arms in surrender while being threatened by the teenager, who “towered” over her.
“[Ms White] was an innocent older woman going about her business at the shops with her young granddaughter in the early evening … She ought to have been able to feel and be safe,” Justice Bowskill said.
“It is fair to say that the prevalence of criminal offending involving knives, particularly by young offenders, who are impulsive and so all the more dangerous, which jeopardises the lives and safety of innocent members of the community, has increased and is a serious social problem in our community.
“Deterrence in this context refers to the need to send a message to young people who are inclined to go out into our community armed with a knife, and use it to stab others, that they will face substantial punishment in the courts.”
Header image: Left, the killer being taken into custody (7News). Right, Ms White (supplied).
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