An Iraqi refugee who drove into a Melbourne primary school and killed an 11-year-old boy has escaped with a $2,000 fine after police inexplicably charged her with an offence that meant she could not be jailed.
P-plate driver Shaymaa Oun Ghazi Zuhaira, 41, slammed into Auburn South Primary School in Hawthorn East on October 29 last year, killing Jack Davey, 11, and seriously injuring four other children aged 10 and 11 who were sitting on a bench in the playground when it was struck by her Toyota SUV.
Seven months later the mother-of-three was given a plea deal by police and charged with the minor traffic offences of “careless driving” and “failing to have proper control of a motor vehicle”, neither of which can result in jail time, and did not spend a day behind bars.
She faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday where she was fined $2,371, the maximum penalty Magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano was able to impose, and had her driver’s licence cancelled for two years, and must complete a safe driving course, the Daily Mail reported.
In a victim impact statement heard by the court on Monday Jack’s mother Jayde Davey called the charge as an “insult”, and described her disbelief when she was told Zuhaira went on an overseas holiday after the crash and was going to be able to plead guilty to careless driving.
“If there is no charge for killing him, where is the justice?” she said.
“The thought of waking up each day without him for the rest of my life is unbearable. In the depths and pits of endless grief, I try to accept that our son is gone.”
Jack’s father Michael also expressed his anger and heartbreak over the charge and the mystery that still surrounds the crash – media were never given access to CCTV of Zuhaira crossing a median strip and ploughing through the school fence.
“The lack of answers to those questions enrages me,” he said.
“Failing to keep a lookout is careless driving. Not keeping proper distance is careless driving. You crashed your car through a primary school playground hitting five children and killing our son.
“It is an insult, it hollows me, the entire process. The entire process, the police investigation, the legal system – I feel ill just standing here, helpless.”
Zuhaira cried in court on Monday, but only after she had tried to have her named suppressed by the court by using her child’s mental health, and her lawyer tried to argue that the crash was caused by trauma from her life in Iraq triggered by a meeting with teachers about her son’s behaviour before she got in the car.
Her lawyer Matthew Senia told the court the meeting was stressful, and claimed his client now suffered PTSD from the crash, “extreme depression”, and anxiety.
“Her symptoms of trauma were triggered in meeting with the school principal, inhibiting her ability to drive the vehicle and leading to the misapprehension of the accelerator,” Mr Senia said, but police prosecutor Anthony Albore said Zuhaira was seen smiling and looking happy by witnesses as she left the school.
In sentencing Magistrate Caltabiano rejected evidence from forensic psychologist Jeffrey Cummins about the supposedly traumatic effects of the meeting, telling Zuhaira: “I do not accept that your moral culpability is reduced as a result of your mental state at the time.”
Zuhaira was allowed to come to Australian in 2015 and has since been given citizenship.
It is unclear why Victoria Police did not lay more serious charges, why it took seven months for charges to be laid, and why two female officers, including an inspector, delivered bags of groceries to Zuhaira during the week after the crash.
Zuhaira was arrested on the day but released after being interviewed, and police then told media to stay away from her and her family because the attention was “causing deep distress”.
Header image: Right, Jack Davey. Left, Zuhaira outside court on Monday (7 News).
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