By JESSE GRAHAM
AN APPEAL against a three-year prison sentence for a father who killed his daughter in a buggy accident in Yarra Glen has been dismissed by the courts.
On Monday 30 May, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by Ricky Oliver Stephens against a three year and nine month prison sentence, handed down for the death of his nine-year-old daughter in a buggy accident.
The accident occurred on 6 September, 2013, after Stephens tested a new all-terrain vehicle at his Yarra Glen property with his 11-year-old stepson, and nine-year-old daughter, Sophie.
Though Stephens and his stepson were buckled into seats in the buggy, Sophie was unrestrained and sitting in the stepson’s lap.
When Stephens drove over a dirt mound twice and attempted a burnout, the buggy flipped, throwing Sophie out before she was hit by the rolling vehicle.
In October, 2015, Stephens pled guilty to charges of dangerous driving causing death and reckless conduct endangering life in the Melbourne County Court, and was sentenced to three years and nine months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and three months.
The sentence was appealed on 18 May, with lawyers for Stephens arguing that the sentencing judge erred in finding Stephens’ moral culpability was ‘very high’.
However, the Court of Appeal delivered a scathing rebuttal in its judgement on 30 May, with judges writing that Stephens “exposed the deceased and his stepson to a high risk of injury which might properly be described as breath-taking”.
The judges noted that Stephens was told repeatedly about the dangers of the buggy, ignored a safety DVD before driving, deliberately exceeded the passenger limit, and drove the buggy “in a manner calculated to cause the buggy to lose traction, and thus lose control”.
“All of this was done deliberately,” the judges wrote.
“We have examined the photographs of the buggy and the paddock that were taken following the incident. They more than underscore the grave and serious risk to which the appellant chose to expose the deceased.”
Stephens’ lawyers made a submission that the sentence should have been lighter due to a lack of aggravating factors – such as being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or being fatigued or sleep deprived.
But the judges dismissed this argument, and added that although the buggy was travelling at a minimum speed of 34kmph, the buggy was still travelling at an “excessive” speed, and no error had been found in the previous judge’s sentencing.
“We see no error in the judge’s conclusion that the appellant’s moral culpability in this case was of a very high level,” they wrote.
“The appellant’s appeal must be dismissed.”
The judges also found through the appeal that the range of sentences handed out for dangerous driving causing death in the state was “too low” after the maximum penalty was doubled to 10 years in 2008.
