Family members of Vyleen White, including her husband Victor (centre), leave court after the sentence. Photo / NewsWire
The daughter of a grandmother stabbed to death in a shopping centre carpark said her family has been left with a life sentence while her mother’s teenage killer will walk free within a decade.
The “towering young man” who murdered grandmother Vyleen White in the Redbank Plains shopping centre car park in Ipswich before stealing her car was slammed as a selfish coward by Queensland’s Chief Justice.
The 17-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, stabbed Vyleen White in the heart as she was walking into the centre with her granddaughter on February 3 last year.
White collapsed to the ground, while the boy took her car keys and fled.
The teenager appeared in the Queensland Supreme Court on Thursday where he was sentenced to 16 years of detainment by Chief Justice Helen Bowskill after pleading guilty to murder.
Speaking to A Current Affair after the sentencing, White’s daughter Cindy Micallef said the punishment could never reflect the magnitude of their loss.
“There’s no justice for us,” Micallef said.
“We’ve got a life sentence and he’s free after, like, 25, 26 (years old).”
She said her family was still trying to rebuild but remained haunted by fear and loss.
“He gets to have a life after all this. We’ve got nothing,” she said, adding that her family no longer feels safe in public.
While Micallef praised Chief Justice Bowskill for doing what she could within the law, she said the system had failed her mother.
Had her killer been kept in custody after three armed robbery charges, she said, “number four, which was Mum, wouldn’t have happened”.
Determined to create change, Micallef said her family’s campaign for “adult crime, adult time” laws was about protecting others from similar pain.
“We can’t get Mum back, but we can try and save some lives,” she said.
The court was told the boy had been hanging around the centre drinking vodka with friends and stealing items while wearing a surgical mask.
About 6pm, the teenage killer approached White and her 6-year-old granddaughter in the centre’s carpark, demanding her keys.
She raised her hands and took a few steps back, when the boy stabbed her once and fled in her car.
The court was told he was seeking a car to be used in later robberies.
Justice Bowskill said despite the “brave” efforts of the young girl to raise the alarm and help her grandmother, White died at the scene.
“Your actions on that evening, taking the life of another human being, have caused immense, indeed catastrophic, pain and suffering to her family,” the judge said.
“She was by all accounts a kind, caring, loving and devoted mother and grandmother.”
Justice Bowskill said White’s life mattered and was not something to be wasted by senseless and selfish acts of violence.
“The description of Mrs White stepping back, with her hands raised, reveals a defenceless woman, who posed no threat whatsoever to you, a towering young man, more than 2 metres tall, acting with determination,” she said.
“Your actions were callous and cowardly.”
The judge rejected a suggestion the offending occurred in a “moment of madness” nor that he’d “blacked out”.
The court was told the boy, who had come with his loving family from South Sudan in 2007, had struggled to adjust after his family moved from Canberra to Ipswich. Disconnecting from his family, the teenager soon fell in with a criminal gang and began offending to feel “valued and accepted” by them.
Because of the offending taking place in February last year, the court was told the Queensland Government’s adult crime, adult time laws do not apply. These laws came into force in December.
He will be released from detention after serving 60%, or just under a decade, of his sentence.
In a statement delivered to the court on Wednesday, Victor White said the loss of Vyleen, his partner of 50 years, took away his future.
“I live with the knowledge my life will never be the same,” he wrote.
“This crime has left me and my family broken in ways words can never fully capture.”
Micallef described her mother as a woman of deep faith and generosity who was always ready to help others, even strangers in need.
“She was such a caring, giving person,” Micallef told ACA.
“We’d all be better off if we were more like Vyleen.”
Although she’s not ready to forgive, Micallef said her grief has become a driving force.
“Maybe one day … but I’m on a mission, I’m in a fight, and I’m gonna keep fighting for people.”
Fighting back tears, she said her biggest regret was the time she never got to share with her mother.
“I was always working and trying to keep my family afloat … I didn’t get to say goodbye. She was an amazing mum. I’ve lost my rock.”
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