An “expressionless” seven-year-old boy broke into a zoo, bludgeoned to death giant lizards and fed them – and other live animals - to a crocodile named Terry in Outback Australia this week.

Zookeepers were horrified when they arrived at work on Wednesday morning to see Terry, an 11-foot long saltwater crocodile, feasting on his fellow showcase reptilians at the Alice Springs Reptile Centre in the Northern Territory.

At first they thought the animals, including the zoo’s favourite, metre-long, 20-year-old goanna, had escaped from their outdoor pens and accidentally become breakfast for Terry - the local zoo’s prize attraction.

But further investigation uncovered CCTV footage of the local boy’s horrific 35-minute killing spree which began when he scaled the fence of the zoo, located in the centre of Alice Springs, a popular tourist destination town in central Australia, just before 8am on Wednesday morning.

The blank-faced boy, who had evaded security cameras because of his slight size, then began his deadly rampage, smashing rocks on the heads of the reptiles and throwing them and other live animals into the crocodile enclosure, according to the zoo’s director Rex Neindorf.

The boy killed 13 animals in total, including a large turtle, bearded dragons, goannas and lizards including Thorny Devils and Western Blue tongues, which are hard to find in captivity.

“It’s absolutely devastating for us, we’re just horrified,” Mr Neindorf told Times Online today.

“The goanna was 20 years old, she was an absolute doll.”

The boy was so brazen he even climbed over an outer fence to get a closer look at the action.

“He was lucky because if he got in there with the goanna, she would have torn him to pieces,” Mr Neindorf said.

Police were called and questioned the boy, who comes from a family well known in the local area, but because of his age they are unable to do anything. According to Northern Territory law, children under 10 are not liable for criminal offences.

“I thought for the sheer consequences of what he did that there would have to be some severe punishment, but he’s only seven, they can’t do anything to kids under 10,” Mr Neindorf said.

“We’re going to see what we can do, maybe try and sue the family in the civil court, we’ll look down that avenue.”

http://www.timesonline.co.../world/article4874657.ece for the full story.

Future Dahmer in the making?

Steve Irwin is rolling in his grave as I type this.

Agreed.

Having any and all types of information and/or resources at their finger types doesn't help either.

i wouldn't call this a sophisticated crime

In this instance I would say that compared to the types of violence crimes committed by a 7 year old 40 years ago that it is substantially more sophisticated than what was considered a common offense by someone of this age.

Now compared to a violent crime committed by an adult, I would agree that is isn’t very sophisticated, but given the context of the age of the offender (if they actually committed the crime) than it is rather complex.

maybe funnier

or sexier

I think if you replace the word "sophisticated" with "horrific", then you'd be correct.

And I definitely agree that having access to any/all information out there, and no restrictions on it by parents definitely adds to the problem.

I've seen kids throwing rocks at birds, and parents doing nothing. Maybe it's not that big of a deal, but they're like four, five, six year old kids, and they're learning that it's completely acceptable to try to hurt others for their entertainment.

stoning with daddy

ok
ok
ok

next time I'll tell my kids not to throw birds at rocks when judgemental citizens are around

I'd argue that the access to information makes us think this kind of thing is happening more and more, when, in fact, it likely isn't. Bad news travels faster than ever before. We can get all the horrific news stories from across the planet almost instantaneously. That doesn't mean more bad things are happening, just that we're more aware of the bad things that are taking place.

^^
Who posted in this thread that these types of events happen with a greater frequency then they used to?

I don’t see that anywhere.