Lleyton Van Spronssen sentenced over fatal Niagara Park drug driving crash
An 18th birthday party, drugs, alcohol and a high speed joy ride — it had all the hallmarks of a tragedy waiting to happen. And now the driver, 19, has been sentenced over a fatal crash.
Central Coast
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If there was ever a salient real life warning about the dangers of young, inexperienced and intoxicated males getting behind the wheel then 19-year-old Lleyton Van Spronssen is its poster boy.
The 19-year-old hugged friends and family as he arrived at Gosford District Court on Tuesday knowing he was going to jail for a high-speed crash which killed his mate Rhys Morris and injured three other passengers.
An agreed set of facts states he was celebrating an 18th birthday at Central Coast Leagues Club on March 20 last year when he was seen to consume five beers.
He would later tell police he also consumed 1g of cocaine before he was refused service and kicked out of the club shortly before 2am on March 21.
The facts state he then went to a house party at Narara where he took MDMA before getting behind the wheel of a friend’s silver Mitsubishi Lancer with three others to go and buy cigarettes.
On the way he stopped to pick up a fourth passenger and after purchasing smokes at the Lisarow 7-Eleven, Van Spronssen started speeding along Washington Ave.
“The deceased also recorded a video of the offender driving,” the facts state.
“The video depicts loud music playing, and multiple people within the car yelling for the offender to slow down. The speedometer (from the view of the rear passenger side seat) appears to show a speed of 160km/h.”
About 4.20am Van Spronssen lost control on a right hand curve near Perrat Close and hit a tree and a timber pole.
“At the time the vehicle left the roadway, the vehicle was travelling at approximately 134km/h,” the facts state.
Van Spronssen assisted one of his friends out of the car and was seen by witnesses to be freaking out saying “I’ve killed the boys”.
At his sentence hearing last week Van Spronssen told the court he took up Muay Thai fighting because he was scared of going to jail.
Judge Tanya Bright read out a brief victim impact statement written by Mr Rhys’ mother Kim, father Brett and brother Dillon Morris.
“Our family has been changed in ways that were unimaginable,” the statement read.
They said Rhys had been doing an apprenticeship and his parents had dreams of both their sons taking over the family business.
“We miss him more than words can describe,” the statement said.
Judge Bright said while she was satisfied Van Spronssen was “highly unlikely” to reoffend, she said the prevalence of young motorists with no criminal record and being of otherwise good character being involved in these types of crashes meant “deterrence” had to play a bigger part in sentencing.
Judge Bright said it was aggravated by the fact he was travelling at 94km/h over the signposted limit, he was acutely intoxicated by cocaine and MDMA, and that he ignored his passengers pleas for him to slow down.
Van Spronssen had pleaded guilty at an earlier appearance to aggravated dangerous driving occasioning the death of his mate Rhys Morris and grievous bodily harm to another passenger while travelling more than 45km/h above the speed limit and under the influence of drugs.
He had also pleaded guilty to causing bodily harm by wanton driving and being a P1 driver with more than one passenger after 11pm.
Back up charges of negligent driving occasioning death and grievous bodily harm, and two counts of driving under the influence of drugs were withdrawn and dismissed.
Judge Bright sentenced Van Spronssen to a total of five years and four months jail with a non-parole period of two years and eight months.
A tearful Van Spronssen, who had been on bail, was led from the dock with his earliest release date being December 12, 2023.
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