A Provincial Court judge sentenced a 14-year-old girl in Prince George to an 18-month intensive support and supervision order Jan. 29.
The girl, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, will be supervised by a youth probation officer and assigned a youth worker for the duration of the term.
The girl was 12 years old on May 28, 2024, when she worked with two others to steal an iPad from a group home. One of her accomplices was only 11, too young to be charged.
“Effectively,” Judge Michael Brecknell said, “an intensive support and supervision order is the most comprehensive means that the court has available to assist a young person in changing direction in their life, short of putting them in jail.”
He told the girl that the alternative would have been jail time in a youth institution among serious offenders, including those who have committed sex crimes, and that she would be far away from her friends.
“It’s no picnic in the park,” Brecknell said. “So we’re going to make an attempt to assist in refocusing her efforts going forward.”
Brecknell directly addressed the girl, telling her that he was a little more than five times her age and had been a judge for over three times the length of her life. He hoped that she had seen enough of the courthouse.
“It’s not a place most citizens want to be at, it’s not a place most citizens want to be involved in,” he said. “So either you can get pointed in the right direction or you can get the opportunity to see people like myself and the sheriff and the clerk.”
