Monday, 31 March 2008

Ten years' jail for crash that killed six


The man convicted over a car crash that claimed six lives near Mildura two years ago has been sentenced to 10 years in jail in the Supreme Court in Melbourne.

Thomas Towle will have to serve a minimum sentence of seven years.

He has already served two years in jail so he could be released in five years.

Justice Philip Cummins told the court Towle was responsible for the deaths of six loving children and his actions had left their families devastated.

He said Towle's conduct fell into the worst category of dangerous driving.

A jury found the 36-year-old man guilty of 10 charges, including six of dangerous driving causing death and four counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury.

Towle was found not guilty of six counts of the more serious charge of culpable driving.

He was driving with his son on his lap when he skidded sideways into a group of teenagers leaving a 16th birthday party in February 2006.

The dead youths were siblings Abby and Shane Hirst, aged 17 and 16; Cassandra Manners, Cory Dowling, Stevie-Lee Weight and Josie Calvi, all aged 16.

Josie Calvi's mother Carmel said Towle "should have got more" but overall the family was happy with the court.

Sharon Manners, the mother of Cassandra Manners, said at least the families know that Towle will be off the road for five or seven years and "hopefully someone else's kids will be safe".

A spokesman for the families, Colin Cole, the chaplain at Mildura Secondary College, said it was the best the families could expect, but he said the sentence had done nothing to alleviate the pain for the families.

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