30 months in jail

By Kath Gannaway
COLDSTREAM teenager Daniel Clarke will serve 30 months in a youth justice centre for causing the death of Healesville friend Jake McKaskill in December 2009.
Clarke, 20, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne County Court on 5 April to dangerous driving causing death.
Members of both families were in court on Monday for the sentencing by Judge Howard Mason who said the offence carried a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.
Judge Mason said Clarke, who was on a probationary licence, had been drinking alcohol and had been speeding and driving recklessly in the lead-up to the crash in Healesville in the early hours of Wednesday, 16 December.
Inside the court Clarke’s family and friends were in tears as he was led from the dock.
Outside the court, Jake McKaskill’s mother Deborah McKaskill was devastated, also in tears, as she expressed her frustration and grief at what she said was too lenient a sentence.
Supported by Jake’s older brother Jason, she said it was no deterrent.
“I don’t think two and a half years in the youth justice system is going to send a message to anyone who drinks and drives,” she said.
While Judge Mason acknowledged Clarke’s remorse and said he had good prospects for rehabilitation, he said the charge was extremely serious, a fact he said was reflected in the doubling of the penalty in 2008.
That was done, he said, to place greater emphasis on the harm that such actions caused, and to increase the deterrent factor.
“It is precisely because of the tendency of young drivers to drive dangerously that general deterrence must be regarded as of great importance and youth must be given less weight,” he said
The judge read from the statements made by other young passengers in the car that night detailing the events leading up to the minutes, just after midnight, when Jake McKaskill sustained the horrific injuries that would lead to his death the next day.
They told of how Clarke drove through two stop signs and drove recklessly up a one-way road in the wrong direction before speeding down High Street towards Ryrie Street.
One passenger said he was so scared he had his hands on the roof of the car in case the car crashed.
“I didn’t tell Clarkey to slow down or stop driving like an idiot because, even though I was really scared, I didn’t think anything bad would happen,” he said.
Judge Mason said while in the circumstances Clarke’s moral culpability was high, he accepted it was reduced by a number of mitigating factors including no prior convictions, his young age, his genuine remorse, the fact that he made consistent efforts to understand the circumstances leading to his actions and his prospects for rehabilitation.
He said he believed he would be subjected to undesirable and corruptive influences in an adult prison.
Judge Mason said the victim impact statements from Deborah McKaskill, including a note from his sister Tiarna told of a family whose grief was extreme and of a loss which was incomprehensible and profound.
“A beautiful young life has been lost and the emotional consequences will be long-lasting,” he said.