Samantha Magdaleine Farrer — ex-girlfriend of Rodney Clavell — on trial for fatal hit-run of Kathleen Heraghty

THE former girlfriend of dead fugitive Rodney Clavell was high on drugs when she killed a prominent Adelaide midwife during a hit-run accident two days after Christmas, a court has heard.

Courts. Samantha Farrer who is charged with death by dangerous driving she was an ex girlfriend of Rodney Clavell.

• TRIBUTE: Hundreds mourn midwife Kathleen Heraghty
• CLAVELL’S EX: Farrer denies causing death of cyclist
• THE SIEGE: How the drama unfolded

THE former girlfriend of dead fugitive Rodney Clavell was high on drugs when she killed a prominent Adelaide midwife during a hit-run accident two days after Christmas, a court has heard.

Samantha Magdaleine Farrer, 39, was “grossly” impaired by methamphetamine when she ploughed into cyclist Kathleen Heraghty, 48, on a Fleurieu Peninsula road in December 2013, the District Court heard on Tuesday.

She allegedly hit Ms Heraghty, a mother-of-three, on an almost 1km straight stretch of Inman Valley Rd, 5km from Victor Harbor, on a fine sunny day, prosecutors said.

Driving a friend’s dark coloured Holden Commodore sedan and having not slept for at least 24 hours, she was on her way to visit her father in the seaside town after her friend fished at Cape Jervis at sunrise, the court heard.

Kathleen Heraghty, 48, who died on Inman Valley Rd. Picture supplied by family.

She allegedly hit Ms Heraghty, a well-known midwife, leading lactation consultant and breastfeeding counsellor, at 10.30am on December 27, 2013 as they travelled south while her passenger, David Repaniche, 46, slept alongside her.

Ms Heraghty, who was training for a local triathlon on a blue race bike with her husband Women’s and Children’s Hospital obstetrician Brian Peat, died at the scene despite the efforts of passers-by and paramedics.

Farrer, of Payneham, in the eastern suburbs, is the former girlfriend of fugitive Rodney Clavell, who took his own life during a siege in Adelaide’s CBD in June 2014.

She had been at a Boxing Day party at her friend’s Collinswood house, in Adelaide’s inner north, before they travelled south of Adelaide.

Mr Repaniche woke after the accident, and Farrer told him she had hit a sign or a fruit stall and that she would pay for the damage.

Prosecutors accused her of fleeing before her arrest an hour later on the southern Expressway, while driving the car with “significant” damage, including a shattered front windscreen and a dented roof.

Flowers left at the scene where cyclist Kathleen Heraghty was fatally hit by a car on Inman Valley Rd. Picture: Tait Schmaal.

A “distressed” Farrer told police that she could not understand the response as she had “hit a post”. Police initially believed she was “covering up” for her friend, who officers suspected of being the car’s driver.

Farrer sat expressionless in the dock on Tuesday as prosecutor Amelia Cairney opened her trial yesterday, accusing her of gross negligence.

“The prosecution case is that the accused’s activity of driving … in her failing to see the cyclist and manoeuvre around her, was down to the gross defective outlook on her part, which is explained by her methamphetamine intoxication,” she said.

“If the accused was looking properly out she would have had ample opportunity to see Ms Heraghty travelling ahead of her.

“She was driving in a manner that was dangerous to the public … and causing the death of Ms Heraghty.”

Fugitive Rodney Clavell, who shot himself in a dramatic siege in the Adelaide CBD in June 2014.

Ms Cairney told the court the accused had recorded a drug blood level of 0.43 upon her arrest, which was likely to have been closer to 0.5. This, experts say, “significantly” affected her driving.

Under state law, it is illegal to drive with any level of illicit drugs in your system.

The court heard such drug use would cause a user to take risks, become agitated from “arousal”, irritated and paranoid.

Farrer, who was originally from Queensland, denies one count each of aggravated causing death by dangerous driving and leaving the scene of an accident after causing death.

Gilbert Aitken, defending, declined an invitation to make an opening address to trial Judge Gordon Barrett.

The trial, in the absence of a jury, continues.