‘All my fault’: Lisa Mottram tells of moment she ran over family

Lisa Mottram, ex-wife of a former NRL boss, has spoken for the first time about the horrific moment she hit four people and was jailed for two years.

Sydney woman Lisa Mottram has spoken for the first time since she was released from prison about the horrific moment she drunkenly hit a family with her car.

Ms Mottram, ex-wife of former Parramatta Eels boss Denis Fitzgerald, said she was living a “normal life” full of “usual mum stuff” when she made a decision that would land her in jail for two years.

“The realisation of what I did was horrendous and I had Sophie (her 14-year-old daughter) actually calling me saying, ‘Mumma, there’s a helicopter around, are you OK?’ and at that point in time I didn’t even know what to say to her,” Ms Mottram told Gary Jubelin on his I Catch Killers podcast.

“I said there had be an accident but ‘a friend would be there very soon to take care of you’.”

Lisa Mottram had been separated from her ex-husband Denis Fitzgerald about 18 months before the collision. Picture: Facebook

Ms Mottram, who was 50 at the time of the collision, was released from prison on November 28 last year.

Three years earlier, on a September day in 2018, she had been drinking cocktails with friends at lunch, then was driven home to her daughter by a friend and later got back in her car to buy cigarettes.

She said she was only 30 seconds away from home when she struck the four tourists, including a four-year-old girl.

The child was left with life-threatening head injuries while her mother, father and aunt were also seriously injured.

The family were due to return to Hong Kong the next day. When the young girl was discharged from hospital, she was not responsive to voice, The Daily Telegraph reported.

CCTV showed the moment Ms Mottram crashed into the victims. Picture: Channel 10

Ms Mottram told Mr Jubelin that they were walking by the road, there was no footpath, it was dark and she did not see them.

“I felt the impact. I didn’t know what had happened though until I got out of my car,” she said.

“I saw the four people on the road and there was a little girl’s shoe near me.

“People had then stopped to help. I also called the ambulance and the lights, the sirens, the helicopter landing, it was all my fault. It was all my fault … to think I created that carnage, it was really hard.”

Police alleged Ms Mottram’s blood alcohol reading was 0.113 and she was texting behind the wheel.

Ms Mottram wasn’t sentenced until more than a year later.

She wasn’t sentenced until more than a year after the collision in November 2019.

During that time she was admitted into a private drug and alcohol facility for just over five weeks where she had 24/7 care.

Ms Mottram said she wanted to take her own life as she couldn’t accept that hurting the family was an accident because she made the decision to drive.

“The sentence ‘it was an accident’ just doesn’t cut it and never will,” she said.

Ms Mottram said her time in prison involved two years of “feeling alone, regretful, remorseful, embarrassed (and) ashamed”.

She said she saw some “horrendous things happen”, which have changed the person she is and how she looks at life.

Ms Mottram told Mr Jubelin that she was sharing her story not for sympathy but as a warning for others.

“I don’t think people even give enough thought to getting in the car the morning after a night out,” she said.

Of her own experience, she said: “I was very naive … drinking cocktails you don’t think about the amount of alcohol in them. Not eating as well.”

Ms Mottram said she lives with “intense guilt” and now has to find a way forward.

She will be on parole until November 28 next year.