Source : Perth Now news
A fruit picker has been jailed for five years for killing his ex-girlfriend in a drunken crash that came weeks after he was ordered to stay away from her over serious domestic violence offences.
Rolong Stanley, a farm worker from Vanuatu, pleaded guilty to aggravated dangerous driving causing death over the crash that killed 42-year-old Justine Hammond near Orange, in central-western NSW.
The ute Stanley was driving spun out of control and slammed into a tree on the winding Lake Canobolas Road on a Sunday afternoon in February 2025.
The mother-of-two was dead when paramedics arrived and there was “catastrophic” damage to the ute, including a caved-in roof, according to court documents.
A blood-alcohol analysis later showed Stanley was in the range of 0.212, or more than four times over the legal limit, after the pair drank wine at an apple orchard that afternoon.
The 31-year-old was prohibited from drinking and being within 500m of Ms Hammond under the conditions of an apprehended domestic violence made in November 2024.
In December 2024, a local court judge sentenced Stanley to an intensive correction order for assaulting Ms Hammond, being armed and possessing ammunition without a licence.
Stanley sat with his head bowed in the dock of the NSW District Court in Orange on Wednesday as he was sentenced to a non-parole period of three years and seven months for the crash.
Judge Penny Musgrave noted he was a disqualified driver in control of an unregistered car, who should not have been drinking or in contact with Ms Hammond.
“In these circumstances … his culpability is high,” Judge Musgrave said.
Prosecutors withdrew charges of breaching the apprehended domestic violence order and high-range drink driving when Stanley pleaded guilty in May.
Ms Hammond’s sister Adrienne Hiko travelled from New Zealand to address Stanley.
With tears streaming down her face, Ms Hiko told the court of her grief.
“Stanley, when you took the life of Justine … you did not just take a life, you shattered our entire family,” Ms Hiko said, as relatives watched via audio-visual link.
“(Her) daughters long to hear their mother’s voice again, while our father aches to see his baby girl walking down the driveway one last time.
“You are left breathing, but we are left to pick up the broken pieces.”
Judge Musgrave said it was a tragedy it took the death of his former partner for Stanley to realise he had an alcohol disorder.
Stanley told a psychologist his drinking worsened due to social and cultural isolation after arriving in Australia in 2019 and he was heartbroken about the crash.
It was a serious example of dangerous driving given his alcohol consumption and the poor state of the rural road, which links a busy recreational dam to vineyards and restaurants.
“The time of the incident and the road itself exposed not only the victim but other road users to risk,” Judge Musgrave said.
Stanley will be eligible for parole in May 2029.
Federal authorities may decide to deport Stanley upon his release.
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