How youth crime has exploded out of control in premier’s home town – as eshay teen thugs brag on social media that they’ll be ‘bailed in 90 minutes’

A violent crime wave has gripped the home town of Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan with tensions boiling over as frightened Bendigo locals are besieged by nightly break-ins, a surge of car thefts and brazen daytime assaults by youths aged 10 to 17.

Angry locals have taken to social media to voice their fury about weak laws which saw one 15-year-old offender bailed 55 times only to be released and offend again.

Teenage repeat offenders boast online that even after getting arrested they will be straight back on the street ‘because we can get bail in 90 minutes’, Opposition Nationals MP Gaelle Broad told Daily Mail Australia. 

Residents of the historic former Gold Rush town in Victoria’s north, who are planning a community protest about bail laws next week, have told Daily Mail Australia they have now lost all confidence in Allan’s government.

Senior police have joined the uproar and spoken out after the latest statistics revealed that in the 12 months since Ms Allan succeeded Dan Andrews as premier in September 2023, home invasions rose 89 per cent and motor vehicle thefts were up 50 per cent.

Locals have been posting images on social media from their home CCTV cameras of teenagers trying to break into their houses. 

They now have to tell their children not to walk through Bendigo’s central shopping mall because of the youth gangs carrying machetes and knives.

On a Bendigo community page on March 17, one woman reported three car thieves in hoodies had come into her street at 4am to steal a vehicle and only left when a resident disturbed them and they took off. 

Bendigo residents do not feel safe in their homes or streets as criminals as young as ten roam in gangs committing violent break-ins, car thefts and brazen daylight assaults 

Youths viciously attack a security guard at a shopping centre after posting an invitation on social media for people to come and film them beating someone up

Bendigo is Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s home town but despite toughening bail laws some fed-up locals don’t think she’s gone far enough to stop children in a ‘revolving door’ of crime and release

Another woman wrote: ‘Where are the laws defending yourself against kids that are beating the s*** out of you?

It followed armed teenage thieves kicking in the door of a terrified couple’s home in the southern suburb of Quarry Hill to steal their car keys during a home invasion.

The youths then took off with one of their cars, and the woman told the Herald Sun that she was too frightened to sleep since the raid by ‘pathetic little sewer rats’.

‘It … makes you live differently and I really hate that,’ she said. 

‘They come into your home, it’s your safe place.’ 

Overall, crime in Bendigo has escalated by almost 20 per cent since Ms Allan came to power, including a record surge of 16 per cent in the last year

One community social worker said juvenile criminals were so brazen about going unpunished, they had created a social media group ‘Bendigo Fight’ to arrange for people to film them attacking a shopping centre security guard. 

The vicious bashing of a 20-year-old security guard at Bendigo’s Marketplace was captured on video as a group of teenagers allegedly punched, kicked and dragged the man to the ground. Police arrested three youths aged 17, 16 and 14.

In another brutal assault, Bendigo solicitor Isaac McLean suffered severe facial fractures after a group of young men set upon him and his friend, a primary school teacher, in Bendigo’s CBD early on February 9. 

Mr McLean later said he had and his friend, both 28, had commented on one of the youths wearing sunglasses at night before they were assaulted.

The ‘disgusting’ bashing was caught on CCTV, but the two alleged offenders were released on bail after being charged. 

Allan also moved to ban machetes after a violent murder in Melbourne, but Bendigo protesters say that thugs carry machetes in their town and could attack at any time or place in public

A youth kicks a security guard in the head after a brazen attack in central Bendigo which has seen a massive hike in home invasions, car theft and violence

After his two assailants were released on bail, Mr McLean said he had little faith in the justice system and he and his girlfriend were thinking of relocating. 

Other incidents in Bendigo include a group of teenagers storming Bendigo Senior Secondary College where they attacked and spat on staff and fearful students.

A gang of youths used hockey sticks to attack people on Mitchell Street near Bendigo’s central railway station.  

A 15-year-old who was released on his 55th count of bail was later arrested and charged over a series of offences which culminated in a terrifying home invasion with another teen, 17, in which they allegedly bashed a man in the head with a hammer at Kangaroo Flat in southwestern Bendigo.

Some teens have become notorious locally for their relentless violence and criminality, despite their identities publicly kept secret because they are children.

Locals say the teens have no concept of consequences for their actions because of the legal system’s ‘revolving door’ which sees them released almost immediately.

Police believe these ring leaders are mentoring children aged just 10 to 12 years old in the skills of home invasions without fear of getting caught. 

In Victoria, the common law principle of ‘doli incapax’ presumes that children under 14 are incapable of committing a crime because they lack the maturity to form the criminal intent required for a crime. 

Police believe ring leaders are mentoring children aged as young as ten in the skills of home invasions without fear of getting caught

A youth grabs a security guard at Bendigo Marketplace shopping Centre on March 3, where the 20-year-old was punched, kicked and dragged to the ground

One Bendigo woman in her 70s, Gwen Kerr, has started demonstrating outside Premier Allan’s local electorate office after she also fell victim to a home invasion.

She was forced to run screaming from her home when a youth offender fleeing police broke in.

Ms Kerr admits she is now ‘frightened’ and has vowed: ‘I won’t go out after dark. The fear is that this will happen again.’

In mid-March she suffered a terrifying panic attack when she witnessed a teenage girl ‘carrying on and abusing staff’ at  Bendigo railway station.

Despite being a lifelong Labor voter, she said she won’t be voting Labor this year.

Although Victoria does not have a state election until November 2026, the potential of its crime wave to turn voters off Labor in the coming federal election could prove problematic for Ms Allan’s future as premier.

Former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk quit in 2023 after grappling with a youth crime crisis, as her party faced annihilation at the polls. 

Ms Allan’s hometown crime headache could loosen her grip on the leadership if it is perceived her weakness on the issue affects the Albanese government’s fortunes at the national polls.

Last week, she moved to beef up bail laws which finally passed the Victorian parliament after months of delays.

Bendigo locals are concerned about the outbreak of youth crime and violence blighting their historic former gold rush town in northern Victoria

The teen assailant threatens the guard (left) who can then be seen holding his head after beig punched while on duty at a major Bendigo shopping centre

‘There’s got to be a line on the sand,’ Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Bob Hill said. 

But privately police say the state government has not followed their recommendations about strengthening the bail laws, and the state’s opposition say Ms Allan is simply galvanising previously diluted laws. 

Inspector Dan Davison, Bendigo Investigation and Response Manager, said in February that detectives would closely monitor repeat offenders who were on bail, and said those who re-offended would be ‘held accountable’ regardless of age.

‘Youth crime remains a challenge for police in Bendigo with a key issue being children targeting homes and cars,’ he said.

‘Bendigo police are cracking down on this issue with targeted operations, investigations, and regular patrols in place.’

Earlier this month, Ms Allan moved laws in parliament to ban the sale and possession of machetes from September 1 after a 24-year-old man was stabbed to death by a machete-wielding group at a Melbourne shopping centre. 

Before introducing what she called the toughest bail laws ever, Ms Allan conceded the the behaviour of youth criminals in her home town was ‘absolutely appalling’.

‘I hear and understand the concerns of Bendigo locals, and am acting on those’ the Premier said.

‘It is clear that we need to go even further when there are still too many Victorians who don’t feel safe.

‘New powers, and new laws that deliver tougher consequences for serious, repeat offenders … are already making a difference.’

Bendigo locals responded by picketing Ms Allan’s East Bendigo office, chanting ‘lock them up, keep us safe’, carrying placards which read ‘adult crime = adult time’ and marching on to Bendigo’s law courts.

Cailah Brady, who organised the protest as well as next week’s demonstration in Bendigo’s Rosalind Park, added: ‘I’ve got two little boys.

‘I don’t want to have to live in fear that they’re going to get bashed at the shopping centre or have to worry about a home invasion.

‘These young thugs are carrying machetes. Jacinta Allan has got to stand up for Victoria or stand down if she’s not going to do anything about bail reform.’

Frustrated Bendigo residents have bombarded the Premier with emails urging immediate action ‘because we don’t feel safe in our homes’.

One letter read: ‘The people of Bendigo are losing any remaining respect they had for you, and once it’s gone, you won’t be getting it back.’ 

Gaelle Broad, the Nationals’ MP for Northern Victoria, said repeat offenders had been allowed to run rampant for far too long – breaking into homes, terrorising communities, and committing serious assault – only to be bailed and allowed to offend again.

She said Ms Allan had watered down the bail laws after taking office and she questioned whether the new, toughened bail laws were strong enough now to protect the community. 

‘Under Jacinta Allan, if you do another offence when on bail that should trigger an alert with the magistrate,’ Ms Broad said.

‘Instead, they took that away, resulting in a revolving door and young offenders boasting it can take them just 90 minutes to be back out and maybe doing it again.

‘People don’t let their kids walk through the mall. It’s having a massive impact on business and people’s lives.  

‘Locals are fed up. Victoria has twice the number of crimes as NSW and youth crime is 33 per cent up across Victoria and at its highest rate since records began.’

A spokesperson for the Victorian Premier’s office told Daily Mail Australia that the new legislation, entitled the Tough Bail Laws, ‘will create new offences, change what decision-makers consider, and create the toughest bail test ever for the worst offences. 

‘The combination of these changes will make Victoria’s bail laws the toughest in Australia,’ the spokesperson said.

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