Two teenagers who escaped from Darwin’s Don Dale detention centre and allegedly went on a car-jacking rampage have been caught, one nabbed after an early morning police chase.
Josiah Binsaris, 17, was arrested on Saturday morning south of Darwin at Adelaide River after allegedly trying to run police off the road on a remote stretch of the Sturt Highway.
An apparent accomplice in a separate car was seriously injured when his car rolled during the chase over several hundred kilometres.
Police tried to a pull over a Holden Colorado driven by a 19-year-old man at Katherine early on Saturday when a blue Commodore, allegedly driven by Binsaris, tried to run them off the road.
“About 16km south of Adelaide River, the Colorado has possibly clipped another vehicle, causing the driver to lose control,” superintendent Tony Deutrom said.
Binsaris allegedly ran from the crash site and stole another car before driving away but could not get past tyre spikes.
He had escaped from Don Dale on Wednesday evening with Trey Mawson, also 17.
The pair allegedly met other people before driving south, but Northern Territory police could not confirm how many.
Mawson was dropped off at the remote community of Borroloola at some point during the journey, police said, where he was found hiding in scrub about 5am on Saturday.
Binsaris and Mawson travelled about 1,000km in one stolen car but ran out of fuel somewhere between Renner Springs and Tennant Creek, police said.
They flagged down a passing motorist, carjacking her 4WD before ramming the cars of police who tried to stop them at Tennant Creek.
The pair then turned around and drove back north, with the car abandoned at Katherine.
Binsaris is being taken to Darwin.
The escapes were the latest in a long run of juveniles and adults absconding from NT custody. Late last month a Don Dale detainee was caught after escaping overnight, and was injured during the incident. Two others who attempted escape at the same time were unsuccessful.
A week earlier the royal commission heard evidence from a corrections staff member, Derek Tasker, about a teenage boy who was bitten by a police dog and hospitalised when he was apprehended following an escape from the Alice Springs juvenile facility.
Last week the interim report of the royal commission into juvenile detention was delivered, and labeled it a “failing” system which was “likely to leave many children and young people more damaged than when they entered”.
The report said there was “no doubt” the Don Dale facility was inappropriate for holding children, but it advised the NT government not to begin its plans to build a new facility until after the final report was delivered in August.
The NT government has embarked on an $18m juvenile justice reform package, including upgrades to Don Dale, but has held off making substantive changes until it has the royal commission’s recommendations. It is expected there will be a push towards non-custodial options, in an effort to break the cycle of recidivism.
– with AAP
