{"id":20717,"date":"2026-05-29T07:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/20717\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T07:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:12:07","slug":"violent-teen-on-probation-before-causing-fatal-crash-that-killed-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/20717\/","title":{"rendered":"Violent teen on probation before causing fatal crash that killed friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Melbourne teenager had been on probation for just nine days when he caused a deadly, high-speed crash that killed his friend.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old faces a stint in jail over the crash and for bashing a man so badly that the victim was left with lifelong disabilities.<\/p>\n

The teenager, who can’t be named for legal reasons, faced the County Court on Friday and pleaded guilty to charges including culpable driving causing death and intentionally causing serious injury.<\/p>\n

Chief Judge Amanda Chambers rejected calls by the boy’s barrister to limit his sentence to four years in a youth prison.<\/p>\n

“This is not a sentence of four years detention,” she said.<\/p>\n

Then aged 16, the teen was nearly three times over the drink-driving limit when he drove a stolen SUV through a red light and struck another car, causing a catastrophic crash last May<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The stolen car spun out of control and slammed into a traffic light pole at the intersection of Dohertys Road and Derrimut Road in Tarneit.<\/p>\n

A passenger in the stolen vehicle, 16-year-old Kevin Olenga, died in hospital a week later.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kevin Olenga, 16, was killed in the car crash. (Supplied: GoFundMe)<\/p>\n

The death of Kevin, the third of eight siblings, devastated his family.<\/p>\n

“I’m so fearful of accepting his loss \u2026 I feel so bad, I cry all night,” his mother Bora Mireye said in a victim impact statement.<\/p>\n

Defence barrister Naomi Smith said her client had been released on probation by the Children’s Court nine days before the crash over other crimes.<\/p>\n

Boy punched, stomped on man in car park attack<\/p>\n

Three months earlier, the boy participated in a group bashing outside a Flemington housing tower which put two men in hospital.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC said the teenager approached one victim, 36-year-old Valentino Arop, and “king hit” him from behind.<\/p>\n

The attackers kicked and stomped on Mr Arop for 10 minutes, causing lifelong brain injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Arop requires a walking frame and is unlikely to ever work again, the court heard.<\/p>\n

“It was gratuitous violence inflicted on a person who was defenceless,” Ms Rogers said.<\/p>\n

Ms Rogers, a veteran barrister, said she was not aware of a comparable case where a young person was before the courts on two very serious charges relating to different events.<\/p>\n

Judge Chambers said other teenagers found guilty of culpable driving had been jailed for at least five years, and most adults could expect a sentence of eight or nine years.<\/p>\n

She described the assault as unprovoked violence that was “beyond comprehension”.<\/p>\n

“It was not sophisticated in any way. It was just incredibly violent,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Smith, for the defence, said her client acknowledged the “tragic consequences” of his actions.<\/p>\n

She said the teenager grew up in a violent home and that his mother had a drug addiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was undertaking study while in prison and hoped to one day work in a trade.<\/p>\n

The teenager, who watched proceedings via videolink from custody, also pleaded guilty to affray, intentionally causing injury, theft, driving unlicensed and possessing a weapon.<\/p>\n

He could be sentenced when the case returns to court on July 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Melbourne teenager had been on probation for just nine days when he caused a deadly, high-speed crash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,12091,5599,2028,19817,6146,12525],"class_list":["post-20717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-childrens-court","tag-crime-spree","tag-fatal-crash","tag-kevin-olenga","tag-stolen-car","tag-tarneit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}