RAAF corporal jailed for choking girlfriend to death after judge admits error

A former Air Force corporal has been jailed for accidentally choking his girlfriend to death but only after the case had to be reopened because of a judge’s mistake.

A former Air Force corporal has been jailed for accidentally choking his girlfriend to death during sex but only after a judge was forced to admit his initial sentence was too lenient.

Rian Ross Toyer, 33, was on Monday in the Wagga Wagga District Court sentenced to spend at least 12 months in prison over an act of erotic asphyxiation that resulted in the death of Mhelody Bruno.

After Toyer pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter, he was earlier this month sentenced by Judge Gordon Lerve to 22 months imprisonment to be served by way of an intensive corrections order and undertake 500 hours of community service.

However, Judge Lerve was forced to admit he made a sentencing error - because Toyer was not eligible to serve his sentence in the community - and reopen the proceedings.

“Clearly in purporting to impose an intensive correction order I made an error,” Judge Lerve said.

“That error was fundamental and significant, and one of which I must take ownership.”

Mhelody Bruno died after her boyfriend Rian Ross Toyer choked her during sex. Picture: Supplied.

Toyer’s employment with the RAAF was terminated last year as a result of the charges against him.

He had been in a relationship with Ms Bruno, a Filipino national, for three weeks at the time of the incident in September 2019.

In his judgment, Judge Lerve said that the pair had engaged in consensual sex during which he placed his right hand on Ms Bruno’s throat, causing her to lose consciousness.

The court previously heard that it was common for Toyer to wrap his hand on her throat during sex and she had placed it there the first time they had been intimate.

In his original judgment, Judge Lerve said choking was common during their sexual acts and while Ms Bruno never requested that he do so, she never asked him to stop.

“The deceased would tap the offender’s arm if she was uncomfortable with the act. On this occasion the deceased did not tap the offender’s arm,” Judge Lerve said in his original judgment.

Toyer called triple-0 and performed CPR after realising she had lost consciousness.

The following day, she fell into a coma and died after going into cardiac arrest.

On Monday, Judge Lerve imposed a 22-month jail sentence with a 12-month non-parole period.

Toyer was taken into custody and will be eligible for release in March next year.

“The offender in the present matter is one of the more deserving of an intensive correction order that I have encountered since the sentencing reforms of 2018,” Judge Lerve said.

“It is a matter of considerable regret that I am unable to extend that disposition to this offender.”