The teenager who murdered 70-year-old Ipswich woman Vyleen White last year has been sentenced to 16 years behind bars.
Ms White was fatally stabbed in the chest by a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, shortly after she parked at a Redbank Plains shopping centre in February 2024.
Following the attack, which was witnessed by Ms White’s young granddaughter, the teenager stole her car and fled the area.
The now 17-year-old, who pleaded guilty to her murder and other charges earlier this year, faced a sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court in Brisbane yesterday.
Loading…Killing ‘particularly heinous’
Submissions were made by prosecutors and his lawyers about what penalty the teenager should receive, taking into consideration Queensland’s previous youth justice legislation in place at the time.
Both legal parties agreed the killing should be found to be particularly heinous, which would allow for a sentence higher than the previous maximum of 10 years.
Ms White’s killer was sentenced on Thursday in the Supreme Court in Brisbane. (Supplied)
On Thursday, Chief Justice Helen Bowskill made that finding, and also found the teenager had special circumstances, including his youth, early guilty plea and prospects of rehabilitation.
Because of this, she reduced the amount of time he must serve in custody from the maximum of 70 per cent of his sentence, down to 60 per cent.
With time already served, the teenager will be released in 2033.
‘Callous and cowardly’
Chief Justice Bowskill described the teenager’s offending as “callous and cowardly”, and although he was drunk at the time, she did not accept he had “blacked out” when he stabbed Ms White.
“That is no excuse, legally or morally, for what you did,” she said.
The court heard when Ms White was rushed at by the teen, she stepped back and raised her hands.
In one thrust, he caused a 17-centimetre-deep wound to her heart which was not survivable, the court heard.
Ms White was fatally stabbed at a shopping centre, south of Brisbane. (ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)
Justice Bowskill told the court Ms White was a “defenceless” and “innocent older woman” who had the right to feel and be safe in public.
“Your actions … have destroyed not just one life, but many people’s lives,” she said.
ChiefJustice Bowskill told the boy by “taking the life of another human being”, he had caused “immense, catastrophic pain and suffering” to Ms White’s family.
“She was a person who mattered greatly to her family and to the community,” she said.
“All people matter — their lives are valuable and precious and are not something to be wasted by senseless and selfish acts of violence.”
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She accepted the teenager was “socially excluded and isolated” when his family moved to Queensland, and he became caught up with people affiliated with a criminal gang.
He began drinking and taking drugs with the group to fit in, which Chief Justice Bowskill said led to him being “desensitised to crime” and committing offences which he claimed gave him a “thrill”.
“Your malleability made you weak and susceptible to the terrible influence of others, but you also chose to act as you did, ” she said.
“And you acted alone on the night you murdered Ms White.”
Family continues to grapple with ‘horror’ of murder
Speaking outside court after the sentence was handed down, one of Ms White’s daughter’s, Cindy Micallef, said the family continued to grapple with imagining the “horror” of her mother’s last moments.
She described Ms White as the family’s “foundation”.
Ms Micallef said the family’s lives would forever be “upturned” by Ms White’s murder, and she worried about the impact on her young granddaughter who had witnessed the stabbing.
“You can see the deep sadness behind her eyes,” she said.
Cindy Micallef sits in front of a photograph of her mother Vyleen White. (Supplied)
Ms Micallef said the family had been both shattered and fractured by the murder, and she was “gutted” by the sentence, although acknowledged the chief justice was restricted by the laws.
“We’re trying to do the best we can, but everyone’s lives have been shattered,” she told reporters outside court.
Ms White’s family had been advocating for the roll-out of the Crisafulli government’s adult crime, adult time laws, and Ms Micallef said she would like to see similar imposed in other jurisdictions around the country.
Premier says sentence ‘not acceptable’
On Thursday, Premier David Crisafulli said no sentence would ever be enough for Ms White’s family, who he said he felt very close to.
“It’s not acceptable and nothing ever will be for them, and justifiably, they lost everything in that moment,” he told reporters in Brisbane.
Mr Crisafulli said that under the state’s adult crime, adult time laws, which were brought in after Ms White’s death, a mandatory life sentence would be imposed for juvenile offenders convicted of murder.