Driver who killed 88-year-old woman in suburban street set for release
A P-PLATE Ferrari driver with a history of offences, who lost control while speeding on a Reservoir street and killed a great grandmother, will be eligible for parole in just seven months.
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A P-PLATE Ferrari driver who killed a great grandmother after losing control while speeding in a suburban street will be eligible for parole in just seven months.
In what the family of Muriel Hulett, 88, described as a “manifestly inadequate” sentence, former professional kickboxer Suleiman “Sam” Abdulrahim, 26, was handed a three year and three month jail term with a minimum two-year non-parole period.
Abdulrahim continued to commit driving and criminal offences even after being bailed over the death but having already spent 519 days behind bars will be eligible for parole early next year.
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“Mum was so underserving of this terrible end to her life,” Mrs Hulett’s daughter Lynette Vernall, who was driving and also badly injured in the crash, said in a statement to the court.
Outside the court, Mrs Vernall said the sentence was meaningless, either as a reflection of her mother’s life or as a deterrent.
“Culpable driving causing death is supposed to be a 10 to 20 year sentence, 10 would have been lovely; even something like eight would have been nice, but three, and time served already, that really diminishes my mother’s life. It just means nothing.”
“He hasn’t changed from when the accident first occurred,” she said. “He still kept committing crimes”.
Ms Vernall said the she had struggled to move forward and plan ahead while Abdulrahim drew out the legal process by initially trying to fight the charges before eventually pleading guilty.
Ms Hulett suffered a severed thumb, fractured right arm and chest injury. She died 10 days later when her life support was switched off.
Mrs Vernall suffered facial swelling five fractured ribs, a fractured sternum, broken toes, and extensive bruising.
She said her mother had been in excellent health and “looking forward to her 90th birthday” and on the day of the crash they were heading home after lunching with her father’s sisters.
Witnesses said Abdulrahim was weaving through traffic at high speed when he lost control of the silver Ferrari 360 Spider in High St Reservoir on June 27, 2015.
He hit two other cars before spinning out of control and slamming backwards into the front of Ms Vernall’s Mazda 626 after a 65m skid.
“You were in a vehicle that was high-powered and you were driving at high speed in a built-up area,” Judge Trevor Wraight said in handing down the sentence.
Forensics tests showed Abdulrahim was travelling at 100-110kmh when he lost control and spun across the road into oncoming traffic.
The court heard that police raided Abdulrahim home in August, 2016, while he was on bail over the death. His DNA was found on snaplock bags containing a traffickable amount of ice hidden near the air filter of a Harley Davidsion motorbike. Police also found illegal steroids with Abdulrahim’s DNA and $1900 in cash.
Abdulrahim, also continued to commit road offences, using an empty house as an address to apply for a South Australian driver’s licence, and despite being stripped of his licence he was issued a speeding ticket in May 2016 and six months later was arrested for giving a false name and address and breaching his bail by driving.
Abdulrahim has a history of speed and unlicensed driving offences and in 2013 received a suspended jail sentence for driving at a dangerous speed while on a suspended licence.
Despite the seriousness of the culpable driving charge and Abdulrahim’s continued offending while on bail, Judge Wraight said there was nothing the court could say or do to bring back Ms Hulett and the sentence was not a reflection of the value of her life.
He found although Abdulrahim’s actions showed he had had “little regard for what you have done and little regard of respect for the law”, since being in custody he had demonstrated he was “beginning to have insight into the offence and show genuine remorse”.
Had Abdulrahim not pleaded guilty, Judge Wraight said he would have sentenced him to an extra year in jail.