3 teens accused of thrashing youth into a coma

Angry protesters demanding changes to the Young Offenders Act waved banners outside the Newmarket courthouse yesterday, as three youths charged with beating a teen into a coma made a brief appearance on attempted murder charges.

About 60 people stood outside in the rain for about half an hour before moving inside to a courtroom where a pretrial date was set for Oct. 8.

The victim, a 15-year-old Newmarket boy who had just finished Grade 9 at Newmarket High School, was attacked on June 29 in Ken Sturgeon Park.

Beaten severely about the head, the youth managed to get home, where he collapsed. After being in a coma for nearly two months, he has opened his eyes, but he has not fully regained consciousness, his mother said yesterday from his bedside at the Bloorview MacMillan Centre.

His alleged assailants, aged 16 and 17, were released on bail shortly after the attack.

Neither the youths nor the victim can be identified under the Young Offenders Act.

The tension was palpable in the courtroom as the three accused - accompanied by lawyers and members of their families - filed in for the brief appearance before Mr. Justice Robert Leggate.

Uniformed police officers were visible inside and outside the courtroom.

Winnie Anderson sat quietly in the front row of the courtroom with her husband, taking it all in. The 71-year-old grandmother doesn't know the injured boy's family, but she's worried about today's youth.

``I have 12 grandchildren,'' the Newmarket woman said, clutching her purse in her lap. ``If anything like this ever happened to them. . . .

``I think they should bring back caning. That would smarten them up. No one gets a licking these days. They don't have respect for anybody, not for the police, their parents or their teachers.

``It's getting scary out there.''

Outside, as the families were being escorted by police to their cars, the mother of one of the accused lunged at a photographer with her umbrella, shouting: ``You don't even know what you guys are doing. When you become mothers, you'll know.''

Her son, one of the alleged attackers, yelled at his mother to stop, just before several police officers intervened.

The community has rallied behind the parents of the victim, angered by the fact that the three accused are out on bail.

A petition with 22,000 signatures is circulating through the region, and a Web site set up in the victim's honour has had 10,000 hits.

``People somehow think violence is reserved for the city,'' said Cheryl Taylor, 45, who has visited the victim in hospital at least five times. ``Even though you are outraged by it, it's far away. Now it's closer to home.

``It's getting to the point where you know people who have been victims of heinous crime.''