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Police v W [1996] NZFLR 15 (YC)

Case summary provided by LEXISNEXIS NZ

Name: Police v W
Reported: [1996] NZFLR 15
File number: CRN 50480117139-40
Date: 20 June 1995
Court: Youth Court
Location: Otahuhu
Judge: McElrea DCJ
Charge: Armed Robbery
CYPF no: s272; s277
Key Title: Jurisdiction of the Youth Court - Age
LEXISNEXIS NZ Summary:

Children and young persons - Youth of seventeen had pleaded guilty to charges of armed robbery - Jurisdiction of Youth Court to sentence him - Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989, ss 272, 277, 283.

The defendant, aged seventeen, had pleaded guilty to two charges of armed robbery committed after he had turned seventeen. His two co-defendants were under seventeen and had been remanded to the Youth Court for a family group conference. The question was whether the Youth Court had any further jurisdiction in the defendant's case given that he had pleaded guilty to the charges.

Held (declining jurisdiction)

There was no jurisdiction for the Youth Court to deal with somebody over the age of seventeen, that is, who was "adult" for the purposes of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989, if they plead guilty. The appropriate course, and what was envisaged by the Act, was that they were then referred off to the appropriate adult Court to be dealt with as adults. The only need for them to be dealt with by a Youth Court was where the proceedings must proceed in tandem with those relating to young people and so it was only where there was a defended hearing, involving both a young person and somebody over the age of seventeen, that there was any need for the adult to remain. Further, the powers of the Act relating to directing or convening family group conferences were limited to children and young persons.

Application

This was an application for an order that a youth, aged seventeen, be allowed to remain in the Youth Court and be dealt with by that Court, notwithstanding his age.