A Kyabram teenager has learned of his fate in a bid in Victoria’s highest court to have his jail term reduced over a fatal crash last year that killed a Shepparton man.
Riley Jack Camin, 19, appealed to the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court to have his sentence reduced after a fatal crash that killed Shepparton man Alexander ‘Bill’ Eagle at Lancaster and injured Camin’s best friend in January last year.
Camin’s senior counsel appealed the two-year youth detention centre sentence handed down by the County Court last year, saying it was “manifestly excessive”.
In the Court of Appeal sitting at Shepparton on Friday, June 7, Justices Maree Kennedy, David Beech and Lesley Taylor refused Camin’s application for a sentence reduction.
Camin pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the County Court for dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious injury for the crash.
Camin was 18 years old when he drove through a stop sign on Dunbar Rd and crashed into Mr Eagle’s ute at the intersection with Lancaster Rd at 10.35pm on January 20, 2023, killing Mr Eagle.
The court heard Camin missed a ‘stop-sign ahead’ warning sign that was 80m from the intersection.
When the NSW P-plater spotted the stop sign and braked, he was only 10m from the intersection.
Mr Eagle, 69, was on his way home from a golf club at Kyabram where he had been shooting rabbits to help the club control the pests.
In handing down their judgment on Friday, Justices Kennedy, Beech and Taylor said a manifestly excessive sentence was only established if the sentence was “wholly outside the range of sentencing options available” to the sentencing judge.
They said the tragedy of deaths on the roads was highlighted by the victim impact statements by members of Mr Eagle’s family in this case.
“A man who might have expected to share many more years with his loved ones has been struck down, leaving those close to him, particularly his wife, to bear profound grief at his loss,” they said.
The maximum penalty available for dangerous driving causing death is 10 years in prison, while the maximum available is five years for dangerous driving causing serious injury.
The judges said Camin’s guilty plea, youth, vulnerability, excellent character references and genuine remorse, coupled with the lack of speeding, intoxication or drug use, were all taken into account with the sentence.
They also said the County Court judge “was correct to accept that the offending involved momentary inattention”.
“Despite the mitigatory features in this case, we are simply not satisfied that the sentence was wholly outside the range of available sentencing options,” the judges said in refusing the appeal.