Worrying new details have emerged about the 12-year-old girl accused of stabbing a 37-year-old woman to death, including that she had run away from care homes ‘hundreds of times’ and appeared ‘significantly substance affected’ at the time of the alleged attack.
The young girl, who cannot be identified due to her age, is accused of killing the older woman in the early hours of November 16 at the former Royal Hotel pub turned hostel and apartments in Footscray, Melbourne.
She was arrested at the scene and taken to the hospital for a medical assessment under police guard. She was charged later that day with murder.
It was revealed during court proceedings this week that carers of the girl, who has been under the care of the state since she was a baby, reported escalating violent behaviour in the 20 months before her arrest.
The Supreme Court heard the girl had run away 275 times in the last three years and had been missing for two weeks when she was arrested at the Barkly St apartments.
A 12-year-old girl allegedly stabbed a 37-year-old woman to death at the former Royal Hotel pub turned hostel and apartments in Footscray on November 16 (pictured, forensics at the scene)
The Supreme Court heard the girl has been under the care of the state since she was a baby and had run away 275 times in the last three years (pictured, police at the scene)
The girl ran away twice a week on average for ‘one to two’ nights, the Herald Sun reports.
The court also heard the girl’s carers had made at least 10 reports of violent behaviour in the 20 months before her arrest.
The alleged incidents included her holding up a shop with a knife to steal alcohol, carrying a knife in public, stealing her carer’s car, assaulting three people on separate occasions and breaking a resident’s window with a stone.
The 12-year-old was supposed to undergo fingerprint and DNA analysis to compare her samples against those found at the crime scene but her criminal case was delayed by a debate on whether the media should be allowed to report on the trial.
The court dismissed a suppression bid from Victoria’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing on Friday after it cited ‘parental concern’ for the girl’s welfare if details of her case were aired in the news.
Details revealed in court proceedings over the last five weeks were kept secret until Justice James Elliott found the gag order wasn’t necessary on Friday as existing laws regarding children’s anonymity already gave her a ‘significant degree of protection’.
Now the bid has been dismissed, the girl’s forensic hearing can go ahead with new details of the crime scene are set to be revealed.
The girl’s carers made 10 reports of escalating violence, including an alleged incident where she held up a shop with a knife to steal alcohol (pictured, forensic officer at the scene)
Details of the crime scene have been kept secret while the court handled a gag order submission for the case by the Victoria’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (pictured, investigators at the scene)
No information about the circumstances of the murder have been made available yet.
The court also heard the girl suffered a history of abuse, was sexually exploited by adults and would drink alcohol as her ‘choice of substance abuse’.
While in hospital following her arrest over the alleged stabbing, the 12-year-old appeared to be ‘significantly’ substance affected and told a psychiatrist: ‘I’m going to f***ing kill you motherf***ers.’
The alleged violent behaviour continued once she was moved to a state-run secure residential facility while on bail.
The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing initially opposed the girl being held in a detention centre due to her vulnerable state.
Instead, it supported the girl’s bail to a therapeutic support service so long as she would be held in a secure area away from other children and be prevented from leaving the facility.
However, this week the department applied to have the girl’s bail revoked after hearing the facility could no longer cope with her behaviour.
The gag order submission was denied on Friday, allowing the girl’s forensic hearing to go ahead (pictured, police at the scene)
The girl is being held in a secure care facility while on bail but has reportedly threatened staff several times (pictured, investigators at the scene in Footscray)
‘The secretary can no longer ensure the young person’s safety or the departmental staff who care for her and the community while the young person is residing in secure care,’ its lawyer said, the Age reports.
The court heard staff were forced to use physical restraints to control the girl, including since her arrest.
‘She has assaulted our staff in the past, be it physically or verbally,’ a government employee told the court.
On December 17, a month after she was charged, she told staff: ‘I’m going to burn down the building, and I’m going to hurt people.’
The next day she threatened the other children and told workers: ‘If I wasn’t in secure, you would be in a hospital.’
Victoria Police supported the revocation of the girl’s bail and said it did not have the resources to be on ‘standby’ if she suddenly needed to be moved to a more secure facility.
Justice James Elliott refused the request and the girl remains on bail at the care facility.
The court heard the girl told staff at the therapeutic facility ‘I’m going to burn down the building, and I’m going to hurt people’ while on bail (pictured, police at the scene)
The case will return to court in January following a failed application to move the girl to a more secure facility (pictured, police at the scene)
‘I don’t propose to revoke bail,’ he said.
‘It is common ground that [the child] suffers from a mental disability and has the intellectual capacity of someone much younger than her 12 years.
‘It has been estimated that her maturity and level of comprehension is equivalent to that of a six-year-old.’
Instead, Elliott amended her bail condition to require police to respond to any calls concerning the child as a matter of urgency.
The case will return to court in January.