Jordan Maaka sentenced for horror Beverly Hills crash

A drunk suspended learner driver who was going at appalling speeds before he wrapped his car around a pole – leaving a teen with gruesome injuries – has wept in court as he met his fate.

Jordan Tye Maaka. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

A 16-year-old girl told her panicked friend “don’t be scared, we will be alright” as an intoxicated teen driver roared at more than twice the speed limit down a suburban road.

Minutes later, that girl was trapped in his destroyed car, wrapped around a power pole, with an injury to her neck so deep her jawbone was exposed.

The sorry tale of how Jordan Maaka’s actions on September 16, 2022 left multiple families in tatters was unveiled as the young man sat weeping in the dock at Sydney District Court on Tuesday.

Maaka, now 20, was charged with aggravated dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm and three charges of driving furiously causing bodily harm after he crashed his with four other teens inside in Beverly Hills.

A court heard one 15-year-old male passenger was filming Maaka’s obscene driving – hitting speeds of 100km/h in a 50km/h zone – as they passed around a bottle of Canadian Club whisky around 4am that day.

The boys subsequently picked up two 16-year-old girls, one of whom desperately begged to get out and go home when her seatbelt did not work and Maaka reached speeds of 119km/h in a 60km/h zone on Stony Creek Rd.

Maaka – who only held a learner’s licence which was also suspended due to unpaid fines – lost control, and the car spun out into a fence and a power pole.

The wreckage of Maaka’s mother’s car. Picture: Julian Andrews

A court heard Maaka later returned a blood alcohol result of 0.144 – with an expert estimating he would have been around 0.164 when the crash actually occurred.

The teen girl who had begged Maaka to stop the car was left unconscious, while her friend who attempted to assuage her fears was left with injuries that almost claimed her life.

Judge John Pickering described in appalling detail “a deep laceration to the left side of her throat with her jaw bone visible, close to a major artery” and nerve damage in her face.

The other teen girl suffered a fractured pelvis and hip which have left her limping, as well as cuts and bruises.

One of the male teens suffered a spinal fracture to his L1 vertebrae and a lacerated spleen, while the other suffered a broken shoulder, fractured hip and a broken nose.

The carnage left in the wake of Maaka’s high speed smash outside a Beverly Hills home.

Judge Pickering said it was “a miracle” anyone survived the horror smash – which occurred just 10 days after five teens did lose their lives in a high-speed crash near Picton in Sydney’s southwest.

“The victim was a young woman at an early stage of her life,” Judge Pickering said of the most badly injured teenage girl.

“It’s impacted her dreams, where she saw her future, her happiness, where she lived, her entire enjoyment of her life.”

Judge Pickering described Maaka’s conduct as a “gross abandonment of responsibility” – before unveiling the tragic circumstances which brought the young man to this grim day.

Jordan Maaka. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Maaka crumpled into tears in the court’s dock as Judge Pickering described a horrendous childhood in which he was exposed to domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and the incarceration of both his parents in his most tender years.

In one instance, Maaka’s mother described how her young son witnessed his father snatching his scooter from him and throwing it at her because there was no alcohol in the fridge.

“(Your mother says) we have both failed him as parents,” Judge Pickering read from an affidavit Maaka’s mother wrote to the court.

“She says you are a good person at heart, and you were not offered the ideal upbringing – but a violent, traumatic and displaced childhood.”

The court heard Maaka – struggling deeply with complex post-traumatic stress – turned to illicit drugs to cope.

The aftermath.

The group of five inexplicably escaped with their lives – but Maaka will pay with the next two years of his relative youth after Judge Pickering said there was no alternative to a prison sentence.

Maaka swore silently and dropped his head as Judge Pickering convicted him and sentenced him to three years and nine months’ imprisonment, with a two year non-parole period.

Multiple family members and supporters sobbed as he was handcuffed and led into custody – the latest tragic turn in a tormented young life.

In a final bleak crescendo, Maaka’s supporters and his victims almost came to blows outside the courtroom, after one of Maaka’s young female supporters lobbed a foul insult at them.

Maaka’s lawyers and the police officer in charge of the case desperately tried to separate the groups as they filed simultaneously out of the courtroom, with multiple people from Maaka’s side being physically held back before others sprinted futilely towards the victims.

After the court’s sheriffs separated the groups, there was nothing left but tears.

Maaka will be eligible for parole on January 22, 2026.