Those were the words of a 14-year-old victim who, after having a 14cm knife pointed at him, was left in his underwear, in the dark, in the middle of parkland in Mooroopna.
The boy who pointed the knife, a 14-year-old from Mooroopna, pleaded guilty in a Children’s Court to two counts of armed robbery, lighting a fire in the open air endangering the property of others, and committing an indictable offence while on bail.
In the first part of the plea hearing on October 29, the court heard he had told the victim to hand over his jacket and take off his pants when they were walking around the former Mooroopna Secondary College with two other boys on August 29.
The three boys then kicked the victim in the head and body, and the Mooroopna boy demanded his phone pin code before they left him.
One of the boys recorded the armed robbery, which the Mooroopna boy sent the victim on Snapchat.
In a victim impact statement a prosecutor read to the court during a continuation of the plea hearing on November 5, the 14-year-old victim said the attack had changed how he saw himself, and he’d felt “powerless and embarrassed” .
“I’ve become known as the boy who got stripped, robbed and beat up on video,” he said.
“People questioned why I didn’t fight back ... but you just try to survive.”
He said he’d been “bullied out of the only school I can go to” after the video spread.
“It wasn’t just one bad day, it’s something I live with,” he said.
“No-one should have to go through what I did.”
In a similar attack, a 16-year-old was threatened with a knife twice on October 6, while hanging out with two 14-year-old boys, including the Mooroopna boy who was on bail from the August 29 incident.
The first time, the victim was told to hand over his jumper, shoes and vape at a Mooroopna house as payback for an incident he was on bail for.
The second time was about two hours later when he met the boys at the school oval to get his stuff back.
However, the two 14-year-olds demanded his clothes and phone, and started punching and kicking him.
They then left him in his underwear and later lit a fire outside his home.
Police found several videos of the assault on the boy’s phone.
The Mooroopna boy also pulled a large knife out of his pants and yelled at Mooroopna Woolworths security guards after stealing items from the supermarket with another boy on August 31.
He also yelled at another man entering the supermarket, with whom the boys got in an on-foot chase outside.
They later threatened two employees of a Mooroopna massage parlour while armed with knives after breaking in and stealing a phone and $209 during the early hours of September 1.
They locked them in a room where they’d been sleeping after spraying powder from a fire extinguisher.
The Mooroopna boy also punched and kicked a 14-year-old at his Shepparton house on August 14.
He was there with another boy, who filmed the attack, after the victim had told them to leave.
The boy’s defence solicitor said his client was a young offender who had a significant disability, no prior convictions, and had spent a significant period of time on remand despite not being likely to receive a prison sentence.
He asked the magistrate to release the boy, giving him the opportunity to focus on rehabilitation.
A Youth Justice worker told the court if the boy was released they could provide him with more intense support than previously, before he faced court early next year for a group conference — a program that aims to give young people the opportunity to understand the extent of their offending, and divert them from committing further or more serious crimes.
However, the magistrate said because the boy committed the same kind of offending while released on bail, she couldn’t “have him out on bail committing another offence” before the final stages of his sentencing.
“I don’t want another person hurt because of you and your actions,” she said.
The boy was remanded in youth detention and will face court for a group conference in January, but will next face court on Wednesday, November 12.
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