Westfield Tuggerah stabbing getaway driver Maddison Kelly, 30, sentenced
A woman whisked her friend away from the scene of a furious, unprovoked stabbing and helped dispose of the “blood stained knife” before stealing a set of number plates to “avoid detection”.
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A young woman may not have expected her friend to furiously stab another woman in a bizarre and unprovoked attack at a busy shopping centre car park.
But she realised “immediately” what had gone down when her friend jumped back in her car holding a “blood stained knife” and proceeded to drive her away from the scene and later stopped to toss the weapon, a court has heard.
Maddison Kelly, 30, of Berkeley Vale, faced Wyong Local Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact to reckless wounding, larceny and being the owner of a car and not disclosing the identity of a driver.
An agreed set of facts states Kelly was driving a group of friends in her white Hyundai i30 on February 4 last year when they went to Woy Woy to purchase “G” for $50.
They then contacted another woman and arranged to meet her in the cinema car park at Westfield Tuggerah.
As one of Kelly’s group got out to give the woman a hug, another of Kelly’s passenger’s Tiffany Crofts, 24, of Hamlyn Terrace, got out of the rear passenger seat and went up to the victim and began screaming at her.
Crofts ran at the victim before stabbing her “several times” before jumping back in Kelly’s car holding the “blood stained knife”.
The victim ran back to another car and told that driver “don’t let me die” and urged him to rush her to hospital where she was treated for two 5cm-deep stab wounds to her shoulder and another to her arm.
Kelly drove Crofts out of the car park and later stopped on McPherson Rd so Crofts could throw the steak knife into a shallow creek.
The court heard later that evening Kelly and a man drove into the commuter car park at Gosford where he pinched the number plates off another white i30 car while she “kept watch”.
Magistrate Trevor Khan said he “struggled with how this could be a well conceived plot” but acknowledged the only reason they did it was to “avoid detection” from police.
The plan ultimately did fail with police locating her car fitted with the stolen plates the following day.
When she was arrested Kelly said she was asleep at the relevant time and refused to say if she was the driver.
Kelly’s barrister Samantha McKensey said her client was “at a low point” in her life with rampant drug use exacerbating some underlying mental health.
“She’s one of those who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Ms McKensey said.
However Mr Khan said “there could be no doubt” Kelly knew how serious it was when Crofts jumped back in her car holding the knife but then embarked on a “serious set of decisions” to help her friend and try to cover her own involvement.
“It’s not a spontaneous decision,” Mr Khan said.
“Frankly Ms Kelly is lucky to be before me and not before another, more superior court.”
Mr Khan convicted her and sentenced her to a community correction order for two years and an intensive correction order for 20 months with 140 hours of community service.
A condition of her orders is that she continue her mental health treatment and abstain from alcohol or illegal drugs.
The court heard Crofts, meanwhile, will be sentenced in Gosford District Court on April 17 after she pleaded guilty to reckless wounding.
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