Drug driving mum Kylie Hie, who killed four-year-old daughter in Adelaide crash, spared more jail
A mum who killed her daughter while driving high on methylamphetamine was later caught dealing the drug. Now she’s been given another chance.
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A South Australian mum who killed her daughter while driving high on ice was dealing the deadly drug while she waited to be sentenced for the crash, a court has heard.
But Kylie Anne Hie, 38, will likely be allowed to serve her latest sentence on home detention, after a judge found she had undergone a “remarkable process of rehabilitation”.
Hie’s four-year-old daughter, Charlotte, was killed when she crashed her van into the back of a truck on the South Eastern Freeway, in Adelaide, in November 2013.
In 2017 she was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to an aggravated count of causing death by dangerous driving.
But on Wednesday - just 9 months after being released - she faced the possibility of going back behind bars for drug trafficking while she was out on bail four years ago.
Adelaide District Court heard that Hie and her then-partner were caught trafficking drugs to an undercover police operative on three occasions in 2016 while she was awaiting sentence for the crash.
She was caught with ice and arrested in the carpark of a pub in Kilburn, north of the CBD, in August of that year, while police found nearly $7000 in cash during a later search of her home.
Hie pleaded guilty to four counts of drug trafficking as well as a dishonesty charge.
In handing down his sentence for the drug charges on Wednesday, Judge Rauf Soulio said she had suffered significant grief and trauma after the crash.
“You, more than most people, know that methamphetamine is a dangerous drug,” he said.
“It is an insidious drug and causes harmful consequences in the community.”
He sentenced her to a non-parole period of two years and six months, but allowed her to wholly serve the term on home detention.
Judge Soulio said the sentence would allow Hie to continue her positive rehabilitation efforts, including attendance at counselling appointments and abstinence from drugs and alcohol.
Hie was to live with her parents in Mount Gambier, where she has found work and is saving to buy a house.
However, the matter was adjourned for four weeks after it was brought to the court’s attention that the address may not be suitable for home detention.
It is a condition of the sentence that Hie wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, but the Mount Gambier property does not have the required phone reception.
Judge Soulio ordered a home detention report and an alternative residence will be considered if necessary.
Originally published as Drug driving mum Kylie Hie, who killed four-year-old daughter in Adelaide crash, spared more jail