Queanbeyan District Court overturns jail sentences imposed on juveniles who killed kangaroos at Royalla

"I feel horrible about it. [The kangaroos] did not deserve what happened at all," the 20-year-old man told the Queanbeyan District Court on Friday, when Judge Tanya Bright upheld the quartet's appeals.

Magistrate Roger Clisdell had previously sentenced the four offenders, who cannot be named because they were underage at the time of their crimes, to eight months in jail after they pleaded guilty to serious animal cruelty charges.

In September, the Queanbeyan Children's Court magistrate ordered each to serve a non-parole period of four months. However, he granted all four bail pending the outcomes of their respective appeals.

When the appeals were heard on Friday, the 20-year-old man's voice shook as he gave short evidence.

He was driving his co-offenders in Royalla early one morning in April 2020, when an adult with the group, Googong man Peter John McMinn, 21, suggested running over kangaroos "for some fun".

Aged 17 at the time, he and McMinn subsequently took turns mowing kangaroos down with his Mitsubishi Triton utility.

The other three occupants of the car - two boys and a girl all aged 16 at the time - could be heard laughing throughout the offending, which one of the juveniles filmed and later posted on TikTok.

The girl encouraged the driver at one stage to "get the f---ing baby", saying she wanted to "bang it over the bull bar", as the vehicle was intentionally driven at a joey.

Occupants of the car, who got out and killed kangaroos that did not immediately die by hitting them with a hammer, could be heard describing the animals as "faggot c----" on multiple occasions.

Police were made aware of the killings through an anonymous tip about the TikTok video late last year, prompting an investigation that led to the identification of all five offenders.

McMinn, who has also pleaded guilty to a serious animal cruelty charge, is due to be sentenced in the Queanbeyan Local Court on November 21.

The District Court heard on Friday that his fellow driver, a Canberra resident, turned to substance abuse around the time in question after becoming "disillusioned with his life" when the COVID-19 pandemic cost him his dream job.

"I just wasn't myself for a while," the 20-year-old said.

Asked by his lawyer, Anastasia Qvist, how he felt about the kangaroos that had suffered and died because of him, he replied: "I feel ashamed. I feel guilty for the way I treated the animals."

He also apologised to "the TikTok community" and residents of Royalla, adding that he had made enquiries with WIRES and the RSPCA about the potential to do volunteer work caring for animals.

As she argued there was no need for the young man to spend time in custody, Ms Qvist told the court her client had, in the two-and-a-half years since his crime, demonstrated rehabilitation.

Solicitor Dean Rutherford, who represented the other male juvenile offenders, stressed that they had also made positive changes in their lives as he successfully argued against them being convicted.

Lawyer Matt O'Brien told the court his client, the female offender, may have her career ambitions thwarted by a conviction, adding that she had cared for animals on weekends "for some years".

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Mr O'Brien said the young woman, now aged 19, admitted her behaviour had been "reprehensible".

"She was a child then. She's an adult now," Mr O'Brien told the court.

"She says to me she's not that person anymore."

Prosecutor Grant Gaynor argued the appeals should be dismissed.

Judge Bright decided to re-sentence all four appellants to 12-month probation orders without conviction.

She described their conduct as "abhorrent" and reserved special condemnation for the decision to expose the wider community to the killings by sharing the video, calling this "particularly reprehensible".

While the judge said it was beyond question that adults who did these things would receive a significant custodial sentence, she believed the facts relating to the juvenile offenders "bespeak immaturity".

"It is simply not rational to do what these young people did," she said.

As she ultimately set aside the jail terms imposed by Mr Clisdell, Judge Bright accepted the quartet was remorseful and had made "significant progress" since the offending.

Placing them in custody now would, the judge said, undermine this progress and destabilise their lives.

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