CORNER BROOK — The teenager charged with impaired driving after allegedly crashing a stolen vehicle in Corner Brook this past weekend had already caught the attention of a judge who gave him probation two months ago.
The youth appeared before Judge Catherine Allen-Westby in provincial court in Corner Brook Monday afternoon, but it was Judge Wayne Gorman who had indicated he would have liked to have known more about the youth before sentencing him for a number of offences this past summer.
When he was sentenced Aug. 23, the youth’s encounters with the law had been described as escalating. He was given a total of 12 months after entering guilty pleas on breaches of court orders that took place in Corner Brook and to 10 charges related to offences that took place in central Newfoundland and in Corner Brook.
Those offences involved break and entry, theft, possession of stolen goods, trespassing at night and other court order breaches.
Most of the offences happened while the youth was living in central Newfoundland. The residential break and entry involved substantial damage done to the home that was unoccupied when it was broken into.
The trespassing charges involved breaking into a series of parked cars to consume alcohol.
In sentencing him, Gorman had indicated an assessment of the boy’s mental health or a pre-sentence report would have been useful before sentencing him, but those were not appropriate options for the court at the time.
The Crown asked for probation with the thought that the teen would have better access to community supports that might help curb his criminal behaviour.
On Monday, the teen had 10 charges on the docket against him. They included theft over $1,000, impaired driving, dangerous operation of a vehicle, trespassing at night, unlawfully possessing liquor and five counts of failing to comply with the sentence imposed on him by Gorman.
The allegations say that he stole a car from West Valley Road and then abandoned it in a ditch on the Trans-Canada Highway near Riverside Drive early Saturday morning.
Sandi MacKinnon, the legal-aid lawyer who represented the youth in court Monday, asked that a bail hearing be scheduled for him. The bail hearing was set for Wednesday.
A second 16-year-old involved, charged with possessing stolen property and trespassing at night, has been released from custody.
