How Children's Court must deal with indictable offences
156 How Children's Court must deal with indictable offences
If a child is charged before the Children's Court with an indictable offence, the Court must hear and determine the charge summarily unless—
the charge is for any of the following indictable offences for which the Court has no jurisdiction to hear and determine summarily—
murder;
attempted murder;
manslaughter;
child homicide;
homicide by firearm;
S. 156 (1)(a)(va) inserted by No. 54/2025 s. 19(1).
a designated offence committed when the child was aged 15 years or over;
an offence against section 197A of the Crimes Act 1958 (arson causing death);
an offence against section 318 of the Crimes Act 1958 (culpable driving causing death); or
before the hearing of evidence, the child objects to the charge being heard and determined summarily; or
at any stage, the Court determines that the charge is unsuitable by reason of exceptional circumstances to be heard and determined summarily; or
the child is committed for trial for a related offence and the Court determines that there is no substantial and compelling reason to hear and determine the charge summarily.
Note
See also section 516(1) of the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 which confers jurisdiction on the Children's Court to hear and determine summarily certain indictable offences.
The Children's Court must conduct a committal proceeding into a charge for an indictable offence if the charge will not be heard and determined summarily.
S. 156(3) amended by No. 54/2025 s. 19(2).
Despite anything to the contrary in this Part, the Children's Court must hear and determine a charge for an indictable offence summarily if the charge has been transferred to the Court under section 168 or 168A of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009.
This Act’s bill:Explanatory memorandumSecond reading speech
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