Vic crash victim's family 'disgusted'

The son of a woman who was killed when a fellow resident crashed a car into their Melbourne retirement home says he's disgusted that the driver's previous record was suppressed from the jury.

Helen Higginbotham, 92, died instantly when John Stein's sedan ploughed through her bedroom wall and landed on her while she slept at the Lexington Gardens retirement village - where he was also a resident - in Springvale on May 12 last year.

A Victorian Supreme Court jury found Stein's culpable driving caused Ms Higginbotham's death, but he's been deemed unfit to stand trial due to a mental disability from an acquired brain injury following a serious car crash in 1968.

Stein, who was 63 when he crashed his car into Mrs Higginbotham's room, was driving unlicensed and police recorded his blood alcohol reading at 0.174 after the crash.

Ms Higginbotham's son Brian wept as he told the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday how his legs "went to jelly" when police came to his house on the morning of the crash.

He said he was dismayed that Stein's previous drink-driving convictions - five dating back to 1995 - couldn't be used as evidence in the case.

"I am disgusted that when such evidence is crucial to the outcome, we as a family have to suffer knowing this has been hidden," he read from a statement.

Ms Higginbotham's granddaughter, Kellie, wept as she told of the "nausea, disbelief (and) disgust" she felt at losing her nan, whom she described as an intelligent woman who loved knitting and gardening.

Justice Paul Coghlan extended Stein's bail and ordered him to appear in court on October 15.
He said while Stein was liable for a 10-year supervision order, more information was needed to decide whether that should be served in custody.

  10 Sep 2012

Another example of 'Laws for Criminals', and how the system favours the 'criminal'.

In this case the government has let out an individual how has caused the death of another.

If the victims were judges sons mothers or other family members, then the law would be changed immediately, but since the effected people are canon fodder, there will be no change.

The government 'verbosely' opposes 'speeding' as the main cause of death on Australian roads, yet does nothing to stop other from killing innocent people.

The law makers are NOT effected in the smae manner as the general community.