A teenager who killed a grandmother and triggered landmark youth justice laws has appealed his sentence, devastating the victim’s family.

An advocate today said the boy’s appeal was an insult to Vyleen White’s traumatised family and there would be community outrage if the original sentence was not upheld.

The boy was 16 years old when he fatally stabbed White during a carjacking outside a shopping centre west of Brisbane in February 2024.

Vyleen White, 70, was attacked near her car in an underground car park at Town Square Redbank Plains shopping centre in Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane. (Nine)

The crime was the catalyst for controversial “adult crime, adult time” laws, ensuring juveniles face at least 20 years in custody for murder.

However, they were not retroactive and the boy was sentenced under the state’s previous laws, receiving a 16-year jail term.

The teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced in November 2025.

He is likely to be released from custody in late 2033, about the time of his 26th birthday, after 60 per cent of his sentence with time already served.

The boy appealed, claiming 16 years was excessive for a non-premeditated murder.

Arguments against the teen’s sentence were an insult, Victims 1st ambassador Lyndy Atkinson said outside court.

“A precedent needed to be set and this was the right precedent to be set,” she said.

Vyleen White, 70, was attacked near her car in an underground car park at Town Square Redbank Plains shopping centre in Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane. (Nine)

Atkinson said the White family were devastated by the appeal.

“They are too traumatised to attend. I think it’s an insult to the family and there will be community outrage if the original sentence is not upheld,” she said.

The sentencing judge had made an error, defence barrister Matthew Hynes told the Court of Appeal justices today.

“This is a case where there is a single stab with fleeting attention,” Hynes said.

The teen was serving the highest sentence handed down in Queensland for a 16-year-old who killed someone via a single stab wound, the justices heard.

Justice David Boddice said a brief moment of intent to kill or cause life-threatening injury that turns fatal was enough for murder.

“That’s the offence, that’s how you get to murder: one moment,” Boddice said.

The teen quickly approached the 70-year-old grandmother and demanded her car keys before inflicting a “non-survivable” 17cm deep knife wound, Chief Justice Helen Bowskill said at sentencing.

He did not hesitate before stabbing the grandmother as she held up her hands and backed away.

The boy stole White’s 2009 Hyundai Getz hatchback and drove it to a nearby residential area where he showed it off to other teens.

CCTV footage had captured the teen deliberately stabbing White as she tried to get away, Director of Public Prosecutions Todd Fuller told the justices today.

“The sentence falls well short of being described as being manifestly excessive,” he said.

Bowskill’s sentence was made in the context of community demands for greater protection from violent young criminals and increased knife crime in public.

“It was accepted that this was murder was particularly heinous,” Fuller said.

The three justices reserved their decision.