13-05-2025
Teenager sentenced over crash on Barton Highway that killed two other teens
Family members of two teenagers killed in a dramatic crash on the Barton Highway last year have wept in the ACT Supreme Court today as the driver was sentenced to more than five years' jail.
Warning: This story contains confronting images.
The boy, who was 14 at the time, pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death over the crash.
A 19-year-old man died soon after the crash and another 14-year-old died in hospital eight months later.
Both were passengers in the stolen car.
Justice David Mossop said the boy had stolen the spare keys to a car in Chisholm and returned later with the 19-year-old victim to take the vehicle.
The court had earlier heard he had never driven before.
Later that night the car collided with a ute as the offender ran a red light on the Barton Highway.
Justice Mossop said the passenger side of the car was crushed, leaving two of those in the car catastrophically injured.
In the immediate aftermath witnesses who stopped said a fourth boy in the car was hysterical, and the offender was telling people: "It's my fault I've killed my best mate".
"Arrest me I f****d up," he told police.
It took authorities 30 minutes to remove the 19-year-old from the wreckage, with the other 14-year-old left lying on the ground after he'd been pulled from the car.
Justice Mossop said the 15-year-old's victim impact statements "made for difficult listening".
He noted particularly the devastating impact on the mother of the 19-year-old.
Justice Mossop said for the other family the grief was not immediate, but spread out over many months as the younger boy fought for life in a Sydney hospital.
In a letter to the court the driver apologised for what happened.
Justice Mossop said he accepted he regretted what he did, but it wasn't clear if that regret would lead to consequences.
As part of the case the court heard submissions from the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Children's Commissioner, about the boy's severely disadvantaged background.
Justice Mossop said it was a difficult sentencing exercise which pulled in two directions, one of which was to recognise the seriousness of the crime while considering the immaturity and difficult circumstances of the offender.
He has sentenced the boy to five years and three months in jail, to be suspended after two years, with a good behaviour order to run for the rest of the sentence, to allow the boy time to demonstrate he had changed.
With time served that means the boy could be free in September next year.
