A 14-year-old Lower Hutt girl who broke into the homes of several elderly people in March and threatened them with a knife has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years' jail.
Kayla Mary Dennis was denied name suppression when she appeared in the Wellington District Court yesterday for sentencing on one charge
of armed robbery and three of aggravated robbery.
Her victims included two 82-year-old Lower Hutt women whom she threatened with a knife.
Judge Craig Thompson sentenced her to three years and 4 1/2 years respectively, to be served concurrently.
Her lawyer, Geoff Fulton, said she was expected to be sent to Kingslea, a facility for girls in Christchurch, but may have to serve the final stage of her sentence at Arohata Women's Prison in Tawa, north of Wellington.
Dennis' parents, who were in court when she was sentenced, would be the ones who had to face up to the public after Judge Thompson took the rare move of denying name suppression to a minor, he said.
Crown lawyer Alysha McClintock was not surprised by the judge's move.
"This girl was transferred to the district court [from the Youth Court] because of the nature of the charge and because of public interest."
The sentence was within the range that she would have expected, she said.
Victoria University senior law lecturer John Miller said the refusal to grant name suppression was a warning to other young people that they could not hide behind their age when it came to committing serious offences.
"A balance needs to be struck between the seriousness of the crime and the age of the offenders."
Dennis' alleged accomplice, a 14-year-old boy, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of aggravated burglary and is to appear in the High Court at Wellington on Monday.
- NZPA
