Richard Moananu: Orchard Hills drunk driver killed pregnant Katherine Gordon, unborn twins appeals sentence

A drunk and unlicensed driver who killed a young woman and her unborn twins in a tragic head-on collision has made a bid to cut down his jail sentence.

A unlicensed drunk driver who killed a young woman who was heavily pregnant with twins has had his sentence reduced after a successful appeal in court.

Bricklayer Richard Moananu, 31, began drinking about 10am on September 28, 2018 before making the call to get behind the wheel about 6.45pm.

The court heard the young man must have been at least four times the legal blood alcohol limit.

Richard Moananu was re-sentenced on Friday.

Speeding through Orchard Hills, the bricklayer crashed head-on into a car and killed a young woman who was due to give birth to twins within a week.

The sole survivor, Bronko Hoang, suffered two punctured lungs, crushed intestines, a broken left foot and bleeding on the brain.

Bronko Hoang (pictured) lost his pregnant wife (pictured) in a devastating crash.

Waking from his coma, he was given the devastating news he’d lost his pregnant wife and his unborn twins when Moananu’s silver Mazda smashed head-on into their car at 145km/h.

Mr Hoang previously told The Daily Telegraph how the terrifying incident has impacted him.

“I’m the only one who survived; that day, what happened, the guilt and hospitalisation, changed my life,” he said.

“It changed everything. If you are to summarise how I’m feeling right now … to say it’s traumatising is an understatement, to say it’s a horror movie is child’s play.

Kaylene Tanti, on right, was the social worker who told Bronko Hoang of the devastating aftermath of the horror crash when he woke from a coma. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Bronko Hoang at gravesite of his sister and wife Katherine Hoang. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

The black marble headstone at Liverpool cemetery was a difficult place for Mr Hoang to visit, The Daily Telegraph reported.

“I don’t remember much after I woke from the coma, but I went to see my babies in the mortuary. They were a week away from entering the world, but died on impact,” Mr Hoang said.

“Roman and Archer had not a chance of surviving the force of that impact. They looked alive (in the morgue). I prodded them, and said, ‘come on, wake up’. For a while I thought Katherine would come back, too. She was everything to me; my best friend, my wife and she was about to become mother to our boys. Every day I wonder how our lives would have been.”

Moananu has expressed remorse before the courts, saying this after he heard the victim impact statements: “ … it killed me inside. I never meant to hurt anyone on the day. I wish more than anything if I could take it back I would. I wish it was me that died that day, not them … I’m so sorry, Bronko, to you and your family….”

The court heard how Moananu’s childhood was marred by violence, abandonment, exposure to alcohol abuse and dysfunction. He was removed from his home as a seven-year-old due to domestic violence, lived in various group homes before being placed in his mother’s care at the age of 10 where he was subjected to beatings from her new partner.

Judge Leeming took into consideration Moananu’s affidavits which suggested he remained “haunted by what [he] did”, his symptoms of post-traumatic stress, his background and his behaviour since.

“His behaviour in custody appears to be exemplary … The evidence allows the court to take a more sanguine view to the applicant’s prospects of rehabilitation, although the sentence to be imposed must reflect the extraordinarily serious objective facts.”

Judge Leeming gave greater weight to the impact of Moananu’s childhood on his moral culpability and granted leniency for his driving record.

“His traffic record did not include any previous offences of drink driving and there was a limited number of previous speeding offences …”

Moananu pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and one count of aggravated driving causing grievous bodily harm and was jailed in November 2020 for 15 years with a non-parole period of 10 years.

The appeal was put before the Court of Criminal Appeal on Friday which returned the finding the previous sentence of 15 years jail was “manifestly excessive”.

He was resentenced him to 12 and a half years with a non-parole period of eight years and four months.

Moananu will be eligible for parole in January 2027.