A 16-year-old is fighting a charge of manslaughter in his ACT Supreme Court trial. Photo: Albert McKnight.
A trial heard a teenager was just 14 when he was alleged to have been the driver of a stolen car that sped in Canberra before crashing near Parliament House, causing the death of a 15-year-old boy.
But while he admits travelling in the car before fleeing the scene of the crash with several others, his lawyers claim he was not behind the wheel that morning and another man had driven it.
The teenager, who legally cannot be named as he is under 18, pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter in his jury trial that began in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday (25 February).
Jurors heard a stolen Toyota Camry was speeding on Adelaide Avenue before 5 am on 17 April 2024 when it lost control, crashed into a barrier and rolled onto its roof.
A 15-year-old boy was thrown from the car and suffered head injuries when he landed on the road before he was later pronounced brain dead.
During the trial’s opening submissions, the prosecutor said it was agreed the Camry was stolen from a home in Conder on 14 April 2024 before the teenager was spotted in its passenger seat with then-20-year-old Jack Summerell-Jenkins driving later that day.
On 17 April, another 20-year-old, Jayden Michael Chauveau, was driving a stolen Genesis SUV with the teenager as his passenger when he stopped to pick up a girl.
CCTV captured the Camry and Genesis at high speed near The Lodge shortly before 5 am that morning.
The 15-year-old boy was a passenger in the back of the Camry when it lost control, hit a wall on Capital Circuit and crashed.
The teenager and Summerell-Jenkins then both got into the Genesis and Chauveau drove them away before dropping the girl off.
The prosecutor told jurors the teenager admitted being there that morning.
“The only thing the accused does not admit is that he was the driver,” she said.
The teenager’s barrister, John Purnell SC, told jurors he expected the identity of the Camry’s driver at the time of the crash would be the only real issue in the trial.
He said he would be arguing the driver was Summerell-Jenkins.
Mr Purnell said part of the DNA evidence from the scene was consistent with both Summerell-Jenkins and the teenager being the driver.
He also said jurors should consider how the teenager had been injured and bleeding.
“There’s blood in various parts of the Camry … and there’s blood outside the car that relates to [the 15-year-old boy and the teenager],” he said.
The teenager, now aged 16, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and, in the alternative, culpable driving causing death.
He has pleaded guilty to a charge of riding in a motor vehicle without consent.
The trial continues before Acting Justice John Burns.
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