Young dad ‘lay on the road for hours’ beside dying son after allegedly causing fatal rollover

A young dad told police he lay next to his dying five-year-old son for hours after allegedly causing the crash that killed him while at least three times the limit, a court has heard.

Jye Mulhall outside the Darwin Local Court with lawyer Thelma Gray.

A YOUNG dad told police he lay next to his dying five-year-old son for hours after allegedly causing the crash that killed him while at least three times the legal blood-alcohol limit, a court has heard.

Jye Mulhall, 27, was this week committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court charged with drink and drug-driving, driving with an unrestrained child in the car and driving causing the death of Dmitri Charles Mulhall over the fatal rollover outside Adelaide River last year.

Court documents released to the NT News reveal Mulhall allegedly spent the evening of August 12 drinking at a friend’s place in Batchelor where he and Dmitri were expected to stay the night.

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Despite there being bedding, clothes and school supplies for the little boy at the house, Mulhall allegedly decided to drive home to Adelaide River at about 2.30am because he “needed to get (Dmitri) ready for school in the morning”.

The documents say one man, who described Mulhall as “looking very tired at the time”, asked him to stay but instead he picked up his sleeping son and put him in his child seat in the car.

While the seatbelt was threaded through the child seat and buckled in place, the upper tether was allegedly not connected and Mulhall allegedly failed to buckle the boy in.

A short time after leaving for home, the vehicle left the road and Mulhall’s “excessive” over correction allegedly caused the vehicle to “rotate and enter a critical speed yaw”.

“The vehicle continued to rotate until it broadsided, tripped and rolled, coming to rest on its roof facing north in the southbound lane,” the documents read.

“As a result of not being correctly restrained, the victim was ejected from the vehicle during the crash. He died at the scene due to multiple blunt force injuries.”

Shortly before 5.20am passers by heard Mulhall yelling for help and he allegedly told them he had been drinking and didn’t remember how the crash happened.

Paramedics arrived and took Mulhall to Royal Darwin Hospital where he allegedly recorded a blood-alcohol content of 0.095 at about 9.10am and investigators later calculated his BAC to have been between 0.153 and 0.281 at the time of the rollover.

Further analysis also allegedly revealed the presence of cannabis in his blood and “a period of steering absence” of 7.3 seconds prior to the crash.

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“(Mulhall) told attending police that he got out of the car and found the victim lying on the roadway,” the documents read.

“He told police that he yelled for help but no one came and he was afraid to leave the victim alone as he may have been preyed upon by wildlife.

“(Mulhall) stated that he laid on the road next to the victim for a few hours before again yelling for help. He stated that he was unable to find his phone to call for help.”

Mulhall did not enter a plea but his lawyer, Thelma Gray, told the court a “prima facie” case was conceded and he will now face the Supreme Court on June 18.