“Losing my son has been the most painful and traumatic experience of my life.”
Those were the words of a grieving mother at the court case of a hit-and-run driver who killed her teenage son in a Benalla street in 2023.
Dylan Norman, 24, of Baddaginnie, pleaded guilty in the Shepparton County Court on Monday, December 9, to failing to stop at a fatal accident, destroying a thing to prevent it being used in evidence in court, dangerous driving causing death and driving while disqualified.
The charges relate to a hit-and-run crash where Benalla 16-year-old Caleb Puttyfoot was killed after he was hit by Norman’s ute in Bridge St West on August 4 last year.
In her victim impact statement made to the court, Caleb’s mum, Michelle Guppy, spoke of her “fun-loving goofball that would make everybody laugh and smile”.
She also told of her sorrow at the loss of her son.
“I have cried myself to sleep every night,” she said.
“I don’t want to live in a world without my Caleb.
“My body aches when I think of how much I love and miss my boy.”
Prosecutor Philip Teo told the court Norman was driving his Mitsubishi Triton ute west on Bridge St West when he hit Caleb, who was running across the road just before the intersection with Arundel St, at 9.16pm.
It was dark and raining and Caleb had finished a shift at a nearby pizza shop only a minute earlier, before he ran across the road about “one or two metres” from a pedestrian crossing against a red signal.
The court heard crash reconstruction experts said Norman was driving at at least 76km/h and had a green light.
Caleb was thrown across Norman’s bonnet and landed on the ground on a median strip 40m away.
Norman did not stop, instead driving off.
Caleb was flown by air ambulance to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he died nine days later.
Norman’s father rang police three days after the crash and said his son had hit someone and that Norman’s ute was hidden at Baddaginnie.
When police went to the Baddaginnie house, they found the ute, which “looked to have undergone recent repair work”, Mr Teo said.
The prosecutor told the court of witnesses who saw Norman arrive with the ute, and ones who saw him hitting the bonnet with a mallet that night to repair dints, before returning the next day to fix it.
Norman’s defence counsel, Glenn Cooper, told the court his client had not stopped after the crash because “he panicked because he knew he was not licensed”.
He conceded Norman would receive a jail term.
However, he said that his client was young — only 23 at the time of the collision — and had shown remorse.
While Judge Geoffrey Chettle said there were mitigating factors in sentencing, such as Caleb’s “contribution” to the crash, as he had run across the road.
However, he said Norman “not only drove, but drove fast in conditions that were unsafe”.
Mr Cooper said Norman had been a first-responder at a crash only two weeks before this one and had been nominated for a community bravery award for pulling the person involved from the car.
He also spoke of a crash Norman’s brothers had been in.
Judge Chettle said these two experiences with crashes “should make him more aware and acutely conscious of the dangerousness of a car”.
Judge Chettle also referred to Norman’s court history, which included being fined $5000 for driving dangerously while pursued by police and disqualified driving only two months before this crash for an incident a year earlier.
He also referred to “multiple priors” Norman had for unlicensed driving.
Norman will be sentenced on Wednesday.