Linda Britton double-manslaughter trial hears closing arguments

At that speed any impact was always going to be more than “a nudge”, a prosecutor has told the jury in a double manslaughter trial. Read the latest.

Skye Luland and Kazzandra Widders died after Linda Britton allegedly hit them with her car at a Nambucca Heads carpark.

Self-defence or the defence of another person is the key issue for a jury considering the case of a woman charged with the manslaughter of two others, including her own daughter, at Nambucca Heads, a court has heard.

In her closing comments, Crown prosecutor Joanne Smith told the trial at Coffs Harbour District Court the evidence was “overwhelming” that Linda Britton had been driving the car when it hit two young women late on the night of September 28, 2019.

Ms Britton’s daughter, Skye Luland, 24, and Kazzandra Widders, 20, were pinned under the vehicle near the cinema at the Nambucca Plaza and died at the scene.

Ms Britton, 54, has pleaded not guilty to their manslaughter, and alternate charges of dangerous driving occasioning death in the matter before Judge Jonathan Priestley.

Ms Smith said it was the Crown’s contention that Ms Britton was sober and in control of the vehicle - and aware that she needed to accelerate to mount a gutter to reach the place where her daughter and Ms Widders were fighting in the carpark.

The Crown put that the act of trying to “nudge” Ms Widders with the vehicle was “inherently dangerous”.

Ms Smith told the court Ms Britton had made submissions to numerous people that she was the driver as “she was confronting the awful realisation that she’d killed her own daughter”.

While the court had heard from a number of witnesses who believed Ms Britton’s partner David Luland had been the driver, Ms Smith said they were mistaken as the lighting at the scene was “not good”, “the whole incident was fast moving”, and some present were affected by intoxication or shock.

The Crown drew the jury’s attention to a worker at the cinema who estimated the vehicle had been travelling at 20 to 30 kilometres per hour.

At that speed any impact was always going to be more than “a nudge”, Ms Smith said, noting that it was likely the vehicle was airborne and had landed on the women.

The prosecutor told the court that Ms Britton’s actions were not a “reasonable response” - suggesting she could have instead driven or walked to get help, or locked the car doors and stayed in the vehicle and sounded the horn.

In closing for the defence, Ben Cochrane told the court there was evidence that Ms Britton was not in control of the vehicle, and that it was behaving like a “bucking bronco” - “bumping” as it mounted guttering.

Mr Cochrane spent considerable time addressing the question of self-defence, telling the court that Ms Britton’s first reaction on seeing the melee at the plaza was to get out of her car and try to help her daughter.

“What did she learn from that first foray?” he asked.

“Linda (Ms Britton) tried to intervene with her bare hands and she copped a flogging.”

Mr Cochrane told the jury that Ms Britton’s arm was broken after she was hit with a bundi stick, and she sustained other injuries, before returning to her vehicle.

He said people - with estimates of as many as 30 at the scene - were “hitting and kicking” her car.

“It was a scene of chaos and mayhem,” Mr Cochrane told the court.

He said independent witnesses to the battle were scared to approach and waiting for police to arrive.

He told the court that Ms Widders was kneeling on top of Ms Luland, punching her repeatedly to the head. Mr Cochrane said evidence indicated Ms Luland was not fighting back and was apparently unconscious.

He put to the jury that Ms Britton felt compelled to “act to try and save” her daughter - and it was a “terrible and hopeless logic” that the accused turned her car toward Ms Widders.

The key point, he said, was whether the jury considered Ms Britton’s actions to be an appropriate and proportionate response to the scene as she perceived it to be at that time.