A 15-year-old boy who sexually assaulted a jogger "escalated" his violent behaviour while on bail for similar crimes, a prosecutor has said.
"The community demands protection against this kind of extreme violence, this sense of entitlement," prosecutor Tamzin Lee said during a sentence hearing in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 29.
The then-60-year-old jogger is one of two people sexually assaulted by the boy less than three months apart in 2025. The younger victim, who was 17 at the time, was attacked after meeting him while out with friends.
The boy, who cannot be named due to his age, previously pleaded guilty to charges including rolled-up counts of sexual assault in the third degree, committing an act of indecency without consent, and choking.
On Wednesday, Ms Lee urged the court to sentence the boy, who has been in Bimberi Youth Justice Centre since the second attack, to a further period of time behind bars.
She said an expert report noted his behaviour had stabilised while in custody, and a number of support services were available to him.
The prosecutor argued a flexible sentence with strong supports once he was released was the best option.
Ms Lee said both crimes were "violent and brazen", having occurred in public, and appeared to be sexually motivated.
Defence lawyer Sam Lynch argued for the court to consider sentencing the boy to a therapeutic treatment order, noting a recent neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosis.
Mr Lynch said his client was at risk of institutionalisation and questioned what the "end goal" was for the boy who would eventually be released back into the community.
"The person you meet [now] is very different to the person in the statement of facts," he said.
Justice Louise Taylor said that while it was difficult to reconcile the offender with the person described by support workers in the jail, it was "cold comfort to the two women who had the terrifying experience at his hands".
An agreed statement of facts states that the younger victim met the 15-year-old one night in March 2025 while out with friends.
The two went to get alcohol and he insisted they take a "shortcut". Soon, the victim realised they were nowhere near the store but in a park.
He then forcefully tried to kiss her before pushing her to the ground and repeatedly sexually assaulting her while she tried to shove him away.
During the attack, he choked the girl as she protested in numerous ways.
At one stage, when a group of people walked past, he covered her mouth with his hand and told her not to say anything. He continued once they passed.
The victim later called her friends and police were contacted. The boy was arrested early that morning and granted bail.
In a statement read to the ACT Supreme Court earlier this year, the younger victim described suffering anxiety so severe she could not leave her house since the sexual assault.
"[I'm] still suffering with the haunting thoughts caused by this event," she said.
The 15-year-old was on bail when he grabbed the older woman from behind as she was jogging down Oak Hill on the Centenary Trail on May 26, 2025.
It was about 10.15am and the boy put his arms around the 60-year-old woman's neck and pulled backwards. They went to the ground and he tightened his hold around her neck as she tried to kick and scratch him.
The victim lost consciousness, and when she came to she was able to scream and break free.
But the boy grabbed her leg and pulled her back to him, saying "shush, just shush" before he struck her face twice.
He grabbed her hair and put his hand under her chin, pulling her head back. She believed the 15-year-old boy was going to break her neck.
He then indecently assaulted the woman before she was able to push him off with her knee. The boy stole her phone as he fled.
In a victim impact statement, the jogger said she was "hunted" by the boy, and thinks of "the tiger and the gazelle" when she recalls the attack.
"I told myself that if I didn't fight back, I was surely going to die," she said.
"He took away my freedom, my freedom to feel safe, my freedom to be in nature."
Justice Taylor is set to hand down the boy's sentence in October.
