Australian Jake Drage gets nine months’ jail for deadly Java motorcycle accident

AN Australian man has been sentenced to nine months in jail for the death of a woman in a Java motorbike collision.

Jake Drage yesterday in a holding cell before the start of his trial in Cibadak district court, West Java.

WEST Australian Jake Drage, relieved by his relatively light jail sentence over the death of a woman in an Indonesian motorcycle collision, hopes to be home by mid-January.

“It feels better than, say, from my first court, when they were trying to get me for seven years,” Drage said yesterday after judge Heri Sutanto in Cibadak district court, West Java, sentenced him to nine months’ jail on conviction for reckless driving causing the death of a local mother.

Kokom, 42, was riding pillion on her daughter’s motorcycle when Drage’s bike collided with them. Prosecutors, who eventually sought an 18-month sentence, alleged the 23-year-old Geraldton man was overtaking another vehicle at a speed that made a collision unavoidable.

Kokom’s husband has said he didn’t hold any resentment towards Drage over his wife’s death.

Drage, who was on a surfing holiday, said his lawyers would decide on an appeal over the conviction or sentence. “I don’t like having the guilty (verdict) on my conscience when I know I’m not, but that’s something that my lawyers will talk about.”

Having spent four months in custody since the June 30 collision, Drage hopes to be released in two to three months with remissions for good conduct.

“My plan will be to go back to the jail and keep on my best behaviour and get out soon.”

Drage, who said he had converted to Islam, was to have been sentenced last week but the chief judge was unavailable.

PETER ALFORD