A teenager has got home detention for the high-speed showing off that cost the life of 20-year-old Elizabeth Hart as she was crossing a Christchurch road.
Miss Hart's family urged Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders today to make an example of 18-year-old Michael James Bensley with a deterrent sentence of imprisonment.
Miss Hart's father, Geoff Hart, said he hoped Bensley would be jailed "and not given time at home watching television", the Christchurch Court News website reported.
But the judge listed factors in favour of the young driver, who had bought his Nissan Skyline only the day before the June 22 crash.
He imposed 10 months of home detention, 300 hours of community work, disqualification from driving for three years, and a reparation payment of $18,000 to the victim's family.
Bensley drove back and forth at high speed past a house in Fendalton Road where he had earlier been at a party.
Friends in his car have admitted they egged him on, encouraging the fast noisy run where he travelled at 120kmh.
Miss Hart was crossing the road and he thought she had seen him and stopped to let him past, but she kept moving forward and was killed by the high impact injuries when the car struck her.
The courtroom was packed, and large numbers of those present - including Bensley - cried during the hour-long sentencing.
Mr Hart described his daughter as "the most delightful and wonderful daughter" and referred to Bensley as an idiot in his victim impact statement which was read to the court.
"My wife is in tears constantly and my son doesn't say much, and I feel dead inside," said Mr Hart.
"He's taken away our lives as well as killing our beloved daughter."
Miss Hart's mother, Cheryl Hart, said: "This man has almost destroyed our family unit."
She said she and her daughter had been best friends, and the loss of her only daughter involved "unbearable physical pain".
Defence counsel Jonathan Eaton urged a home detention sentence. References suggested Bensley was a responsible young man, who had been the sober driver for his friends that night.
He had not been drinking but his speed had been grossly irresponsible - too fast to cope with someone crossing the road unexpectedly.
He was assessed as a low risk of reoffending.
Judge Saunders noted that Bensley had no previous convictions, and no unpaid fines to indicate anti-social behaviour. He was of good character and had not been drinking.
"I acknowledge there is a tremendous feeling of sadness and grief for the Hart family and the friends and workmates of Elizabeth Hart," he said.
But he said Parliament had brought in home detention sentences to be considered in cases where there was a low risk of reoffending.
He said people should not regard home detention as an easy option.
"People feel desperately trapped in their own home. The loss of liberty and the ability to leave the house to enjoy social recreation is keenly felt and it is not an easy sentence," he said.
Bensley, a building apprentice, was ordered to pay the reparations to the Hart family at $125 a week.
