Nick Darling died in road rage crash caused by Michael Henley’s ‘blind rage’ over love bites, court told
A man flew into a “blind rage” after spotting love bites on the neck of his ex, repeatedly ramming another car until it rolled – killing a passenger, a court has heard.
Police & Courts
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Spotting love bites on the neck of an on-again off-again partner sent a killer into a “blind rage” that led him to chase and repeatedly ram another car, killing its passenger, a court has heard.
Michael Charles Henley, 24, of Morphett Vale chased another vehicle and repeatedly smashed into it until it rolled, killing passenger Nick Darling, about 9.50pm on July 20, 2021.
Henley, and Joshua Shawn Rossborough, 21, of Morphett Vale – a passenger in the car – appeared in the Supreme Court to hear sentencing submissions on Tuesday.
Andrew Culshaw, for Henley, said his client had an issue with the driver of the other car – Lewis Bennett – who had been seeing his former on-again, off-again partner.
He said when she came to visit with their daughter he “saw the love bites on her neck”.
“That started the chain of events that ended with tragedy,” he said.
The court has previously heard the incident was sparked by “an accumulation of grievances” and anger over sex, women and vandalism. It had heard Mr Darling and Mr Bennett had also damaged Henley’s car.
Mr Culshaw said his client had a diagnosed “intermittent explosive disorder” and had “nothing else in his mind but blind anger at the time”.
“There are no winners in this case and there were never going to be,” he said.
He said while his client was “criminally culpable” he had “never intended for any of this to happen” and had penned an apology letter.
“This is a case where Henley lives every day with the knowledge that he’s killed somebody who he, at least at one time, considered to be his best friend,” he said.
He urged the court to consider finding exceptional circumstances to allow Henley to spend a longer period on parole for rehabilitation.
Henley has pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident, while Rossborough pleaded guilty to impeding an investigation and driving charges.
Michael Founds, prosecuting, said Rossborough had allowed Henley to use his defected, unregistered and uninsured car used in the incident. It was later dumped.
He said Henley had torched the car, which was found alight about 1.30am in a quarry.
About 10am Rossborough had “falsely reported the vehicle as stolen, fully aware what had taken place the night before”.
Then at 11am, he gave a “true account” about the driver of the vehicle to police.
Justice Sandi McDonald said his offending “wasn’t very sophisticated”.
Joanna Caracoussis, for Rossborough, said her client was only 19 at the time of the offending and was “truly sorry”. She urged the court to suspend any sentence imposed.
In a victim impact statement directed toward Rossborough read to the court, Mr Darling’s father, Brian Darling, said the man was a “willing participant, urging Henley on in his lust to bring harm” and who had “left him to die like a dog in a gutter”.
“I demand justice for my son … we have been sentenced to life.”
Previously, the court heard other victim impact statements directed at Henley that described Mr Darling as a young man who “could light up a whole room”, and that they were “denied the last opportunity to kiss him and say goodbye”.
Mr Darling’s partner, Ruby Dayman, was pregnant at the time he died and has since given birth to the couple’s daughter.
Both men will be sentenced at a date to be set.
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