Rhys Yore: Yeppoon teen’s mum Mandy Yore speaks at sentencing of Owen Andrew Dendle

“There will be no more family photos”: Mother of Yeppoon teen Rhys Yore shares heartbreaking aftermath as the driver who caused the tragic death of her son is sentenced for his crime.

Mandy Yore looked at Owen Andrew Dendle, the teenage driver responsible for killing her 16-year-old son Rhys, and said: “We were only part of all this because we had lost Rhys to a senseless, preventable crime.”

Mrs Yore was the first to read a victim impact statement at Dendle’s sentencing in the Rockhampton District Court on Monday.

Her husband and Rhys’ father, Shane, followed reading a statement of his own.

Dendle, 18, had earlier pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death while excessively speeding.

Rhys Yore, a Year 11 student at St Brendan’s College, Yeppoon, died after being thrown from the vehicle when it crashed on Appleton Drive at Yeppoon on January 21.

Mrs Yore recalled how she was physically ill after hearing that her 16-year-old son was being taken to Brisbane for an autopsy.

“Then within 48 hours, before his service, still being able to see the bruises and damage on his face underneath the makeup, is another image I can’t erase,” she said.

“On bad days, I think of this - no parent should have these images in their mind.

“Organising a funeral is hard at the best of times, organising one for your child, who is a victim of crime, is beyond words,” Mrs Yore told the courtroom which did not have enough seats for the number of people in attendance.

Arrangements were made for those who could not be seated in the courtroom, to sit in another room and watch the proceedings.

Mrs Yore said she could clearly remember laying with her husband on the lounge room floor during the days after the crash and sobbing uncontrollably.

“I still remember the heartbreaking paddle out at the beach and the memorial rugby league game that we attended that was organised for Rhys by members of the Yeppoon community.

“I vividly remember not being able to look into my husband’s eyes for those first few weeks.

“In my near 50 years of life I’ve never seen such hurt and despair - he was a broken man.

“The disbelief at the turn your life has taken is like nothing else.

“The fact that Rhys and our family did nothing wrong, yet we are suffering because of the actions of someone else is today, still a bitter pill to swallow.

“There has clearly been emotional harm suffered as a result of this crime.

“I’m no longer excited by the future.

“Life is merely about getting through each day.

“The excitement I used to hold about turning 50, my 20th wedding anniversary, overseas travel, retirement, my future has gone.

“I can’t celebrate milestones because Rhys will not be there.

“There will be no more family photos.

“We have been made a three instead of a four.”

Rhys also left behind a brother, Mitchell.

“While I try to be upbeat and put on a face, I’m broken inside,” Mrs Yore said.

“I honestly feel like someone has put a vacuum cord into me and sucked the life out of me.”

A memorial was set up at the scene of the Yeppoon car crash which claimed the life of St Brendan's College student Rhys Yore. This bridge has since been named in his honour.

Crown Prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence, when addressing sentencing considerations, said there were some factors in Dendle’s favour.

“His youth, his lack of criminal history or traffic history, it is an early plea of guilty, and he did demonstrate some co-operation with the administration of justice by making admissions to being the driver and excessively speeding at the scene,” she said.

“Albeit this isn’t a case where some special leniency is afforded as a result of that.

“Those are matters that the (other) passenger also provided evidence in respect of.

“Set against that though...he deliberately set about a dangerous manoeuvre.

“He was only a holder of a provisional licence at the time, so he must have in my submission, known that he was an inexperienced driver with other passengers in the vehicle.

“It was not momentary inattention or dangerousness - it involved conducting a dangerous manoeuvre on more than one occasion.

“Crossing onto the incorrect side of the road, crossing double lines, and excessively speeding.

“All of that was committed in circumstances where the defendant was of the belief that Rhys was unrestrained in the back seat.

“So much so because of the admissions that he made to police shortly thereafter that he thought he was unrestrained.

“As a direct result of his actions, a 16 year old is dead.”

St Brendan's College Year 11 student Rhys Yore died in a single-vehicle crash in Yeppoon.

Dendle’s defence barrister Ross Lo Monaco said it was accepted that this was not a case of momentary inattention.

Mr Lo Monaco said many young men unfortunately hooned a little bit and tried to show off when really they shouldn’t be.

“This resulted in an extreme tragedy,” he said.

Mr Lo Monaco said Dendle was not consuming any alcohol or substances prior to the crash, and after it, he implicated himself as the driver “right from the very beginning”.

The court also heard that Dendle told a paramedic after the crash that he thought he had been driving about 110kmh.

The maximum penalty for the charge Dendle pleaded guilty to is 14 years jail.

Before handing down sentence, Judge Michael Burnett noted that Mrs Yore had described the offence as senseless and preventable.

“Truly it was,” Judge Burnett said.

“This will trouble you for the rest of your life irrespective of what the outcome of today’s proceeding might be,” he told Dendle.

Judge Burnett sentenced Dendle to four-and-a-half years’ jail suspended after 12 months, for an operational period of five years.

He also disqualified Dendle from driving for three years.

Dendle did not spend any time in pre-sentence custody.