The Supreme Court of Victoria granted bail to a 17-year-old child charged with aggravated burglary, arson, and related Schedule 1 offences, finding exceptional circumstances established by the combined weight of the applicant's age, absence of criminal history, strong family support, stable accommodation, ongoing VCE education, and comprehensive bail support services from Youth Justice, Afri-Aus Care, and the Department of Education. The Court held that despite the very serious nature of the alleged offending (a targeted firebombing of a commercial premises), the prosecution failed to establish unacceptable risk where strict bail conditions — including a curfew, geographic exclusion zone, non-association conditions, and mandatory engagement with supervised bail programs — sufficiently ameliorated the risk. The Court applied the 2025 amendments to the Bail Act, acknowledging that community safety is now of 'overarching importance' rather than equal importance, and that the removal of the 'last resort' principle for children does not eliminate the requirement to impose the minimum intervention required in the circumstances, but neither party proposed electronic monitoring as it would have been disproportionately onerous given its likely interference with the child's school attendance.
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