A teenage boy has been charged with a string of driving offences over a crash that killed a 12-year-old girl in Western Australia's far north last year.
The girl was one of seven children and teenagers in the vehicle, which had been stolen from a local hotel, when it rolled on a dirt road near Fitzroy Crossing on July 25 last year.
It triggered a significant period of grief in the town, which has been grappling with youth crime and how to deal with at-risk children for an extended period of time.
Officers from the Major Crash Squad flew in from Perth to investigate the crash, and the circumstances leading up to it.
WA Police yesterday confirmed a 16-year-old boy had been charged with dangerous driving causing death, failing to stop and render assistance or report the crash, and driving without a licence.
He is due to appear in the Children's Court at a later date.
Community seeks government response
News of the charges comes as the wider Kimberley community continues to push for a more concrete response to escalating youth crime in the Kimberley.
Citing information from WA Police, a briefing note prepared for a meeting of government ministers and community leaders revealed juvenile offending was up 54 per cent on the previous two-year average.
The note also highlighted a degree of social media co-ordination and one-upmanship between young offenders in different Kimberley communities, while also indicating that many serious youth offenders operated with a "sense of impunity" in the region, no longer seeing a custodial sentence at the Banskia Hill Detention Centre as a punishment.
The Kimberley Regional Group — comprising the leaders of the region's four local shires — will travel to Perth next week in a bid to press the state government on the need for a stronger response.
A series of community crime forums, organised by the state opposition, have also been held in Kununurra, Broome, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, and Derby this week.
The forums have drawn a range of potential suggestions including reforms to bail laws and the establishment of a local juvenile detention centre to keep young offenders on country.
Questions have also been raised about the amount of in-community work being left to WA Police, with already stretched regional police stations having to handle duties nominally the responsibility of the Department of Communities.
However, Police Minister Paul Papalia dismissed the forums, saying he was already well-versed in the issues facing the community.
"I work with government agencies and Divina D'Anna who's the member for the Kimberley, an excellent member, very, very in touch with her community."
Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan also dismissed suggestions of escalating crime in the wake of last month's meetings, suggesting it was merely returning to pre-pandemic levels.
