Teen girl’s alarming five-word text to her boyfriend after she snatched an 18-month-old girl from a playground, took her to a shopping mall and changed her clothes – as she walks FREE from jail
- Toddler Audrey Passmore was snatched from a playground back in February
- A teenager, then 14 and now 15, was arrested after being found with the girl
- The teenager has since spent 64 days in jail – but she has now been set free
A teenage girl who snatched a baby from a playground before taking the 18-month-old to a shopping mall and changing her clothes has walked free after just 64 days in jail.
The now 15-year-old, who cannot be named, sparked a frantic search in February after she walked off with toddler Audrey Passmore at the Kwinana Adventure Park in Perth’s south.
She was later found with the baby in her arms a 25-minutes drive away. The teen spent time on bail before 64 days in prison after asking to be put behind bars.
Perth Children’s Court on Tuesday heard the full details of the incident for the first time.
Judge Quail said in his view, the girl’s time in prison meant the ‘punishment aspect has already been served’.
The now 15-year-old, who cannot be named, sparked a search in February after she walked off with 18-month-old Audrey Passmore
She was later found with the baby (pictured with her father) in her arms 25 minutes away. The teen spent time on bail before spending 64 days in prison after asking to be put behind bars
He ordered her to be placed on a six-month intensive youth supervision order, with counselling, The West reported.
The court heard that the teenager told police she had seen the toddler sitting on a hot footpath and initially had wanted to help. CCTV showed her picking the child up and taking her to park groundkeepers.
After being asked to wait, she then took the baby to a Big W, while texting her boyfriend: ‘I am stealing a baby.’
After half-an-hour, she was found by police.
Lawyer Claire Rossi described the teenager’s difficult childhood at court.
The court heard that the girl had an abusive father, was abused and ended up sleeping under a bridge.
She also thought for a time that she might have been pregnant to a man who knew she was under 16.
That man had been released from prison just two days before, and the pair had slept in a toilet block after he was let out.
‘She has been used by older people — she desperately wants to love and be loved,’ Ms Rossi said.
Ms Rossi also revealed that despite the girl having left school after year 8, having nowhere to live, conflict with her mother and being abused herself, WA’s Department of Communities did not have an open file on her at the time of the arrest.
‘I should have thought more like a parent … I am so very sorry,’ the girl told her lawyer.
The girl was at the Kwinana Adventure Park in Western Australia with her father before she was snatched
Prosecutor Sinead Purvis said the text message the girl sent showed that she knew what she was doing, and ‘she knew it was wrong’.
‘She frightened the baby’s parents — and she frightened the community,’ Ms Purvis said.
Children’s Court president Mr Quail said the situation was ‘a nightmare that every parent has’.
‘All parents who hear that have a visceral fear — it just grabs your guts,’ Judge Quail said.
‘It affects every parent. It destroys all parents’ trust in leaving their kids alone in a park, even for a short time.’
He also praised the parents of the baby for the understanding shown in their victim impact statements .
A friend who was with her at the time the baby was taken, and who walked with her to the shopping centre, has had her criminal charges dropped.
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