Teen who stabbed victim in Colac and fled from police after drug bust in Warrnambool jailed

Jyden Alberts, of Warrnambool, appeared in Warrnambool Magistrates Court on Friday where he was sentenced to six months' jail and handed an 18-month community correction order.

He pleaded guilty in the same court to 13 charges earlier this month, including trafficking methamphetamine, as well as weapon, assault and bail offences.

Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said if the teen were older, he would have been sentenced to two years' jail.

"You're incredibly lucky because you did not kill or seriously injure the man that you stabbed," he said.

"That was simple good luck. The message that you need to take home today is that it is an absolute red line to ever use a knife on another human being.

"That line's been crossed, that's why I'm sentencing you to a term of imprisonment even though you're only 19."

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Paul Harris previously told the court Alberts got into a fight with the victim on August 14 last year while at an address in Colac.

During the fight, Alberts produced a knife and stabbed the victim in the chest and back before running away.

The victim was later found by witnesses staggering along Corangamite Street clutching his chest. An ambulance was called and he was assessed to have serious but non-life-threatening wounds.

Then on November 27, police received a call from staff at the Austral Hotel in Colac stating two males were causing trouble in the gaming area and being verbally abusive.

The description of the males matched that of an earlier call to police about a male pointing a laser at motorists.

A search of the offender located the laser pointer, brass knuckles, a pipe and a small plastic bag of methamphetamine.

On December 5 at about 6pm, the man was observed on CCTV dropping a small container at the BP service station in Camperdown. A staff member found it and believed it to contain cannabis.

On December 30 at about 2.25am, police observed a car on Mortlake Road, Warrnambool.

The offender fled on foot after seeing police. A search of the car found 20 grams of methamphetamine valued at $15,000, seven diazepam tablets, and 400ml of 1,4-butanedoil, which is similar to GHB, valued at $5000. The remaining passengers told police the drugs belonged to Alberts.

The man was on bail and was breaching curfew at the time.

Addressing Alberts' lawyer, Mr Lethbridge said the "seriousness and danger" of stabbing warranted a term of imprisonment.

"Your client is extraordinarily lucky that he didn't kill the victim involved in this matter," he said.

"There's no question that the sentencing principles of denunciation and specific deterrence when the court is dealing with the intentional stabbing of an individual take primacy."

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