By Jesse Graham
A TEENAGER has been sentenced to five years in adult prison over the August 2015 crash that killed 16-year-old Yarra Glen boy Cooper Ratten.
The 18-year-old man, who was 17 at the time of the crash and cannot be named, was sentenced to five years in jail with a non-parole period of three years by County Court Judge Howard Mason on Friday 12 August.
The man pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death in an April court hearing for the crash, which took place on Glenview Road in Yarra Glen on Sunday 16 August.
The man was driving a stolen Volkswagen Tiguan at around 100km/h through dense fog with no headlights on while under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he failed to negotiate a bend on the road and crashed, flipping the car end-on-end.
Cooper, who was the rear passenger and not wearing a seatbelt at the time, was thrown 65 metres from the car and died at the scene.
Judge Mason said the driver broke his neck in the crash and narrowly avoided becoming quadriplegic, but had now recovered from his injuries.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Mason said that, despite an early guilty plea and a high chance of rehabilitation, the man had a “significant moral culpability” over the crash and would receive an adult sentence.
He said that Cooper, the driver and a friend had been drinking at the friend’s house prior to a function at the Yarra Glen Football Clubrooms on the night of Saturday 15 August.
The group then went to the clubrooms and drank more alcohol “prior to and at the function“, before returning to the friend’s house with others at 12.15am, Sunday 16 August.
About 2am, the trio went to drive a car which belonged to another friend’s sister, but were stopped by another man and the driver’s brother, who took and hid the car keys, calling the group “idiots“ and warning the group not to take the car and not to drive.
Just before 3am the group found the car keys and stole the car, heading out on the ill-fated drive.
At the time of the crash, the man had MDMA (ecstasy) in his system and had a blood alcohol content of 0.084 – over the limit for fully-licensed drivers.
The man was on his learner’s permit at the time, which requires a blood alcohol content of 0.00 at all times – a fully licensed driver was also not present during the drive, another requirement of his permit.
Judge Mason said the sentence issued had to reflect the “court’s condemnation” of the kind of offending that had occurred on the night.
He said the man had several favourable character references, which showed him as a “popular and well respected young man,” that he had showed remorse towards his actions and showed good prospects for rehabilitation.
“Nevertheless, your conduct of driving in the circumstances in which you did is obviously serious,” Judge Mason said.
“The result is that a decent, talented, much-loved young man with his adult life just ahead of him has needlessly been killed.
“Family and friends have been broken hearted and lives will never be quite the same again.”
Judge Mason said the severity of the crash required a custodial sentence, one that exceeded the maximum sentence of three years for minors.
The maximum sentence for culpable driving causing death is 20 years in jail for adults or three years for minors.
“Because of the serious nature of this offence, and your culpability, I consider that a sentence is necessary which, by its effect, will exceed the maximum period available for a youth justice centre order,” Judge Mason said.
“General deterrence, which is making an example of this case in order to deter others who might be minded to offend in similar way remains important – there are cases where the allowance of youth must give way to other considerations; this is one.
“The nature and gravity of the offence, involving a decision to drive somebody else’s car without permission, unlicensed, while affected by alcohol and an illicit drug, at high speed and in the context of the conditions of thick fog, at night, with poor visibility, without headlights and after having been warned not once, but twice not to drive represents significant moral culpability.”
Friends and family of the man broke down in tears when the sentence was read out.
Judge Mason said that were it not for the man’s early guilty plea to the charge, he would have faced a six and a half year jail sentence, with a non-parole period of four and a half years.
The man’s licence was also disqualified for a period of 42 months.
He will serve the sentence in adult jail, but the judge said a parole board would immediately consider whether to transfer the man to a youth detention centre.
