Two teenagers who used a toy gun to hold up a boy with an intellectual disability outside a Woolworths have avoided jail.
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It was about 7pm on May 14, 2017 and the teenagers who were then aged 16 and 17, pushed the boy up against the wall outside the Dickson supermarket and pointed the gun at his head.
But the boy refused to give in to their demands to hand over his wallet and the two teenagers fled on foot. The court heard their victim was aware it was a fake gun.
Both boys pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated robbery.
One of the teenagers was also sentenced on Monday for threatening a youth worker at the care home where he lived.
His younger sister had that day argued with the worker and then stolen a petty cash tin, which included the home's car keys.
As his sister got away, the boy pulled out a meat cleaver and threatened to stab the youth worker with the blade.
The teenager and his sister drove off in the car.
He pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and driving a car dishonestly without consent.
The two boys appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on Monday to be sentenced for their crimes. But prosecutors, noting the boys' traumatic upbringings, did not press for jail time and instead urged the court to prioritise their rehabilitation.
The boy in the incident at the youth facility had one of the most challenging life histories the prosecutor had ever seen.
The boy's parents separated when he was three and he was later removed from his mother who was addicted to drugs. She had struggled to care for the boy and he was at risk of neglect.
In 2010, she died of a drug overdose.
The boy had experienced domestic violence, and verbal, physical and emotional abuse.
In 2011, he went to live with his father, who was later arrested and put in prison in 2012.
He moved in with his grandparents, who had a stabilising influence on him and his life seemed to improve.
But in 2014 his grandfather had brain surgery that led to major deterioration and he could no longer care for himself.
In 2015 his grandmother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and in 2016 she died. The boy was then put into residential care.
Between 2002 and 2011 there were 50 child concern reports lodged in his name, the court heard.
He'd "never had an even break," Justice Michael Elkaim said.
That he had a clean criminal history and before now not been before the court was "quite remarkable", the judge said.
The other boy's life was equally difficult, the court heard. His mother had also abused drugs and he was addicted himself.
But he had tasted confinement and needed a chance to move on, the judge said, hoping the time in custody had left an impression.
Both had spent some three months in custody.
Justice Elkaim said that while for now the court had emphasised the need for their rehabilitation, eventually the teenagers would have to take responsibility for their actions.
He sentenced them to two year good behaviour orders with the condition they be closely supervised by child services.
"There's really nothing more I can say to you," the judge addressed the two boys after he had sentenced them.
"You've got to go one way or the other."