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The pressure to avoid trials can leave some of those involved bewildered and disillusioned. Take the case of Jason Paul Coomber – a man who back on April 15, 2012, lost control of his car and smashed into a tree at Arthurs Creek, killing his passenger, Rhiannon Joy McMahon, 24, the mother of a two-year-old girl.
Coomber was driving an unroadworthy car, was high on a cocktail of methamphetamines, ice and GHB, and hadn’t slept for two days. He was charged with culpable driving, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Despite having a filthy record, pretending he didn’t know his dying passenger and blaming everyone at the initial hearings – including good samaritans at the scene and emergency workers at the hospital – he was allowed to plead guilty to the much lesser charge of dangerous driving causing death, which carried a maximum of five years.
Far from showing remorse, his legal team argued Coomber suffered from the sleeping disorder narcolepsy – deflecting the fact that he had enough drugs in him to drop a bison. He was sentenced to a minimum of 15 months.
As the victim’s father Michael told me: “I know nothing can bring Rhiannon back. But you do lose faith in the legal system.”
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sbsnews-topstories/~3/GZwC-0lj5wI/ferry-carrying-50-people-missing-near-kiribati-for-more-than-a-week
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