Kara Doyle ice killer Mehmet Torun faces DPP push for longer jail term

PROSECUTORS say the man who shot girlfriend Kara Doyle point blank with a sawn-off shotgun while high on ice deserves a longer jail term.

PLEA hearing for Mehmet Torun who fatally shot his girlfriend Kara Doyle before dumping her at a nearby petrol station. Possibly Mehnet Torun arriving at court from the prison van. Photo:Ellen Smith ID MUDT BE CONFIRMED BY REPORTER

PROSECUTORS say the man who shot his girlfriend Kara Doyle point blank while high on ice deserves a longer jail term.

Mehmet Torun was sentenced to at least five years, and a maximum of eight years in prison for accidentally shooting Ms Doyle, 24, with a shotgun less than a metre away at their Avondale Heights home in April 2013.

In handing down the sentence in April last year Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher described the actions of Torun, 25, as “extremely careless, very dangerous and profoundly stupid.”

In finding Torun guilty of manslaughter, the jury accepted the drug-addled man forgot he had earlier loaded the sawn-off weapon before pointing at Ms Doyle and pulling the trigger.

But the Director of Public Prosecutions argued before the Court of Appeal in Bendigo this afternoon that the five-year non-parole period was “manifestly inadequate” in that it failed to acknowledge the “extreme dangerousness” of Torun’s conduct and his “very high” level of culpability.

Barrister Susan Borg, for the DPP, argued Justice Croucher gave little or no regard to the background of domestic violence between Torun and Ms Doyle and gave too much weight to Torun’s guilty plea, level of remorse, youth and prospects of rehabilitation.

“The learned sentencing judge undervalued the objective seriousness of the offending conduct when he found that this was not a serious example of manslaughter,” Ms Borg said.

But Justice Simon Whelan said there was no evidence that Torun was trying to hurt Ms Doyle when he pointed the gun at her.

“It’s not a case of an abusive partner setting out to hurt another person,” Justice Whelan said.

In his sentencing remarks Justice Croucher said Torun had delved into a “good deal of drug use” and that he had been acting violently and erratically towards Ms Doyle and others earlier on the day of the shooting.

Torun had initially lied to police, saying he didn’t know who shot Ms Doyle, and later suggested she may have shot herself.

Ms Borg also argued the sentencing judge had given insufficient weight to Torun’s criminal history.

Torun was on a Community Corrections Order for amphetamine-related offences at the time of shooting Ms Doyle.

Ms Borg argued that if Torun had complied with the CCO then his girlfriend would not have been shot.

Dr Sue McNicol, QC, argued the appeal didn’t even satisfy the “Oh my God test” and that, in light of current sentencing practices, it failed at the “first threshold”.

A decision is set to be handed down in Melbourne at 10am on Friday.

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