Teen who ran over girl while doing ‘circlework’ found guilty

Camden Wilkinson was ‘showing off’ to the 15-year-old after an all night joy ride when she fell under the car’s front wheel.

Camden Wilkinson, 19, has been found guilty of dangerous driving causing serious harm after running over a 15-year-old girl in a Casuarina Beach carpark. Picture: Supplied/Facebook

A TEEN driver who ran over a 15-year-old girl while doing “circlework” to “show off” after taking her on an all night joy ride has been found guilty of dangerous driving causing serious harm.

Camden Wilkinson, 19, faced trial in the Supreme Court this week after pleading not guilty to the charge on Monday.

In her closing address on Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Tami Grealy quoted from Wilkinson’s police interview, urging jurors to accept his own words as proof he was responsible for the girl’s injuries.

“You might consider that doing reverse circles ‘as quick as you can go without breaking traction’ is in itself a dangerous act,” she said.

“It is as the accused said in his interview, a ‘tricky thing’ to do.”

Ms Grealy said while witness accounts of how the girl came to exit the car differed, it was open to the jury to convict Wilkinson even on his own version of events.

“Even if all the doors were closed and all the passengers were restrained, you might think that that kind of conduct, reverse doughnuts, is inherently dangerous and could put other people at risk,” she said.

“Drivers have a responsibility to ensure that they’re driving in circumstances that are safe, their responsibility is to passengers and to other road users and the task falls to them because they are in control of the vehicle.”

“The onus is on the driver to know that their passengers are properly restrained.”

Wilkinson had maintained in his police interview that he wasn’t responsible for the girl’s injuries as she voluntarily got out of the car while it was moving.

But Ms Grealy said it beggared belief that a 15-year-old girl would “elect to open the door and wilfully eject herself from the vehicle while it was reversing in a circle at some speed”.

“Somewhat more extraordinary than that, the accused says that once she was out of the car it was at that point that she told him to stop,” she said.

“He suggested that it was at that point she must have realised that she was going to get run over — the account simply doesn't make sense.”

On Friday, after deliberating for a day, the jury agreed.

Wilkinson will be sentenced at a later date.