The scream that followed is still echoing across Preston.

Yesterday in the Melbourne Children’s Court, the 17-year-old boy who stole a Mazda CX-5, floored it through suburban streets and ploughed into beloved apprentice carpenter Davide Pollina was handed an 18-month youth supervision order, 100 hours of community service, and a two-year driving disqualification.

He will never spend a single night behind bars.

Davide’s mother, Anna Pollina, collapsed in the courthouse corridor, clutching a framed photo of her son in his hi-vis and work boots. “That monster took my baby’s life for a joyride,” she sobbed to waiting cameras. “And the judge just gave him a timeout.”

It was August 17, 2024. Davide, 19, had finished a 10-hour shift, kissed his girlfriend goodbye, and hopped on his pushbike for the five-minute ride to her house. The stolen SUV hit him at 110 km/h in a 60 zone. Witnesses described his body “flying like a rag doll” before landing in a crumpled heap. He died in his girlfriend’s arms eight hours later.

The driver, then 16, already had a rap sheet for burglary and car theft. He laughed with mates as he fled the scene, later bragging on Snapchat: “Did a mad skid, lol.”

Yet yesterday Magistrate Rossi ruled that “detention would not serve the community” and that the boy showed “genuine remorse”.

Davide’s older sister Monica confronted the teen as he left court flanked by youth workers. “Look at me!” she screamed. “Look at what you did to my brother!” Security escorted her away as the boy was whisked into a waiting car, head down, free to go home for dinner.

Outside, the family unleashed a torrent that has since gone viral.

Uncle Marco, voice cracking: “He gets therapy and a second chance. Davide gets a coffin and a headstone that says ‘Taken too soon’. Where’s the justice in that?”

Girlfriend Mia, clutching Davide’s blood-stained work shirt: “I still set a place for him at the table. I still text his phone every night. And that kid gets to scroll TikTok while my whole future is cancelled.”

Father Giuseppe, usually the quiet one, stepped forward with a single devastating line: “In Italy we say ‘Chi semina vento, raccoglie tempesta’. You sow wind, you reap the whirlwind. Today the court sowed wind. God help us when the storm comes.”

Within hours #JusticeForDavide was the number-one trend in Australia. A Change.org petition demanding a judicial review has passed 180,000 signatures. Footy clubs, tradie groups and even rival bikie crews have posted blacked-out profile pics in solidarity.

The Premier’s office issued a bland statement about “reviewing sentencing guidelines”. It felt like salt in an open wound.

Tonight, the Pollina family home is lit only by candles. Davide’s work boots sit untouched by the front door, exactly where he kicked them off the day he died.

His mother whispers to the empty hallway: “Come home, tesoro. Mamma’s waiting.”

But the only reply is the sound of a justice system that just told a grieving family their son’s life was worth 18 months of paperwork.

Somewhere in Melbourne, a 17-year-old boy is asleep in his own bed. Somewhere else, a mother will never sleep again.

That is the real sentence handed down today.