Hunter Valley fatal bus crash driver Brett Button’s sentence appeal date set
The Hunter Valley fatal bus crash driver who killed 10 wedding guests in a horrific tragedy is set to appeal his 32-year prison sentence later this year.
Newcastle
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The Hunter Valley fatal bus crash driver whose reckless actions claimed the lives of 10 wedding guests will appeal his sentence’s severity in the coming months.
The registrar of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal confirmed Brett Button will appeal the severity of his 32-year prison sentence for the horrific crash which killed 10 bus passengers as they left a wedding at Wandin Valley Estate on October 3.
Darcy Bulman, Rebecca Mullen, Zachary Bray, Andrew Scott and his wife Lynan Scott, Tori Cowburn, Angus Craig, Nadene McBride, her daughter Kyah McBride and Kyah’s partner Kane Symons were all killed in the tragedy.
Another 25 wedding guests were injured – with multiple passengers suffering broken necks and other grievous injuries in the carnage.
Button’s three grounds of appeal are that the sentencing judge erred in finding he “drove knowing he was under the influence of opioid painkiller Tramadol”, and in finding the relevant tipping threshold for the bus was 31km/h – as well as that the sentence was manifestly excessive.
The mother of victim Rebecca Mullen, Leanne, was among those who listened to the fleeting court mention online on Thursday morning.
Button was sentenced by Newcastle District Court Judge Roy Ellis last September to 32 years behind bars with a 24-year non-parole period after partially accumulating the 35 charges he was facing, which included 10 counts of dangerous driving causing death, nine counts of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm, and 16 counts of driving furiously in a motor vehicle to cause bodily harm.
The ranges for each of the grievous bodily harm counts ranged from one year and 10 months to two years and seven months, while each of the death counts attracted a maximum of four and a half years.
In pleading guilty to the charges, Button had agreed his dangerous driving involved three different facets – his Tramadol use, his speeding as he hit the roundabout and his risk-taking behaviour.
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