Police Minister Poto Williams weighs in on recent ram raids while National call for policy change. Video / NZ Herald
A Queensland family have been forced to essentially kidnap their own 13-year-old son and send him to New Zealand after he got caught up in a youth gang and allegedly committed numerous crimes, posting several of his exploits to Instagram in the process.
The mother, identified only as Laura, said her husband had to quit his job and use equity from their house to relocate their son to NZ to keep him away from crime.
Laura said he was part of a growing youth crime wave across Queensland and had been involved in an incident where youths stole a car and drove it at 200km/h down the M1 motorway.
"Any mother would do anything to save her kids, but I knew I couldn't stop him. I've tried and failed," she told the Courier Mail.
"So last week we got him on a plane to New Zealand; it's the only way to break this cycle. "While he's in this country, he'll just jump on a bus and come back ... or find a new crowd on social media. They all know each other."
She said the group used the so-called "Daniel Morecombe rule". Named after the murdered schoolboy who was waiting for a bus when he was abducted, the group's name means bus drivers should pick up any kids regardless of whether they can pay the fare.
"They all take advantage of the Daniel Morcombe and just hop on a bus without paying," she continued.
"It's broken our family. My husband is with him in NZ and I'm here with our other children, but we'll keep this going as long as we have to in order to save him."
Laura said it was the thrill of the crime that attracted young people.
"It was never about money, even though he's stealing all the time."
'Someone was going to die on the road - either him or someone else - so we had to get him out.' Photo / News Ltd / File
"Older juvies had educated him on his rights and that juvenile detention was a cool place if he ended there since that's where all their mates are.
"Someone was going to die on the road – either him or someone else – so we had to get him out.
"We're hoping by taking him to the wilds of NZ he can get that adrenaline-riding quad bikes, surfing, swimming ... a natural and legal high.
"But how many other parents can do this? We're funding it through our home equity because my husband has had to quit his job to do this and luckily we have family in NZ, but what do other people do?"
Laura told the Courier Mail her desperation peaked when she reported her son as a missing person and he was found with a knife.
"We had made an appointment for him with a psychiatrist and we basically had him under house arrest so we could make sure he made it to the doctor," she says.
"We had an overnight vigil watching him but then at 10am he just ran right through us, physically bowled right through us, and ran through the front door.
"We chased him in our car, found him and dragged him in. It looked like a child abduction and someone reported us to the cops, who then showed up with three paddy wagons in our front yard.
"The police understood the situation but said he needed to go to the hospital for a mental assessment, not see a psychiatrist.
"So we waited three hours at the hospital but then were told they could do nothing because our son had no mental health record, no criminal conviction ... they said we should have gone to the psychiatrist.
"When my son heard that he just said 'I'm gone' and ran. The next time they found him he had the knife.
"We could see the justice system was not going to stop the behaviour, so we took our own action. He was never going to willingly leave a thrilling adrenaline-packed life of crime with all of these juvie thugs when there were no consequences," she told the Courier Mail.
"Police did all they could, but there is only so much they can do. I don't know what the solution is, but it has to be radical, just like what we did."
