
A young girl has been placed on probation over an aggravated break-in where an accomplice tried to stab a man with scissors before they fled with his cannabis.
The North Albury youngster had only just turned 13 when she, her mother and two men hatched their robbery plan.
They knew the victim had cannabis in his house, Albury Children's Court has heard, so decided they wanted his stash for themselves.
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Defence lawyer Piers Blomfield told magistrate Richard Funston this week the girl had not had any contact with her mother since the incident 10 months ago, as stipulated in her initial bail conditions.
Despite being sentenced by Mr Funston to a nine-month probation order without conviction, the girl remains in custody.
That is because she is due to go to trial before the District Court in Albury in November on an unrelated kidnapping allegation.
At one point the girl was freed on NSW Supreme Court bail, but breached those conditions within a couple of days.
Mr Funston said the probation order applied to the charges related to the break-in - of robbery in company and aggravated break and enter with intent - and to the intimidation of another girl at her Albury secondary school.
"And I'm taking your very young age into account, and the fact you were in company with your mother at the time of this incident," he said.
"That was clearly on my mind."
Mr Funston was taken aback when Mr Blomfield told the sentence hearing his client was affected by illicit drugs at the time of the aggravated break-in, something that had not been raised in any of the reports and submissions previously put to the court.
"(The girl) tells me she had taken drugs on the morning; MDMA (ecstasy) and heroin," Mr Blomfield said.
Mr Funston said this was surprising "and unusual" as "this is the first time I'm hearing this".
The girl and her accomplices committed the robbery on June 13, 2020.
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