Jye Mulhall, who caused crash that killed his five-year-old son Dmitri, could walk free in nine months

A Darwin dad, who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he caused a crash which killed his five-year-old son, could walk free from prison as soon as April next year.

Jye Mulhall crashed his car in Stapleton in August 2019, killing his 5-year-old son Dmitri Charles Mulhall. Picture: Facebook

• Dad pleads guilty to causing crash that killed son after originally flagging not guilty plea

A DARWIN dad who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he caused a crash which killed his son could walk free from prison as soon as April next year.

Jye Mulhall, 29, appeared in the Supreme Court on Friday, where he was sentenced to four years’ prison — conditionally suspended after nine months — for driving a motor vehicle causing harm or death.

The court heard Mulhall got behind the wheel of his car around 2.30am on August 12, 2019 in Batchelor after a night of drinking beers at his friend’s house.

Mulhall applied “excessive steering” after his vehicle left the road, which caused the car to flip several times and ultimately led to the death of his five-year-old son Dmitri Charles Mulhall, who was unrestrained in the child car seat at the time of the incident.

Police calculated the young father had a blood alcohol concentration between 0.153 and 0.281 at the time of the crash, up to 5.6 times above the legal limit.

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In sentencing, Justice Judith Kelly described Mulhall’s action as “extremely reckless”.

“Your reckless action, which caused the death of that little boy, has had a devastating impact on the rest of this family, one they’ll never really get over, and I imagine you are in a similar situation,” she said.

Ms Kelly took into account Mulhall’s minimal criminal history and the “prolific issues” prevalent in his childhood environment.

She also considered that Mulhall is the sole provider for two of his children who are in his care and the fact he is “more or less illiterate”.

“It’s fair to say you’ve led a very, very difficult life and had very difficult upbringing,” she said.

Ms Kelly described Mullhall’s itinerant childhood where he witnessed the shooting of his father and three-year-old brother and began sniffing petrol, using drugs and drinking alcohol from age 12.

In sentencing, Ms Kelly said she needed to “send a message” about the seriousness of drink driving in the Territory.

“Dangerous drink driving is far too common in the Northern Territory, and I need to impose a sentence that will discourage other people doing these kinds of irresponsible and these kinds of dangerous things,” she said.

“It sends a strong message that drunk, dangerous driving is just totally unacceptable.”

However, Ms Kelly accepted Mullhall was “very sorry” for his actions and had been “severely affected by grief” following the loss of his son.

The 29-year-old also pleaded guilty to breaching bail by consuming alcohol on December 21, 2020.

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