Cairns crime: Stanley Floyd Van Wenseen sentenced over hit-and-run of 86-year-old woman

A 44-year-old Cairns man, who later suffered an ‘unbearable loss’, was on a cocktail of six different drugs when he ran over an elderly woman in a hit-and-run.

The elderly victim now walks with a cane and can no longer read.

A man who ran over an 86-year-old Cairns woman – leaving her crippled – has been sentenced with the judge taking into account the later death of the driver’s six-year-old disabled daughter whom the man said he was driving to help at the time.

On January 23, 2019, Stanley Floyd Van Wenseen drove through a red light in Cairns and hit an 86-year-old woman on her way back from church.

Despite the woman’s cries for help, Mr Van Wenseen drove off.

The woman was left with several broken ribs and an injury to her leg.

She required surgery and spent 11 says in hospital.

The driver had taken a cocktail of prescribed and illicit drugs the day he hit the woman.

Mr Van Wenseen was found to have six illicit and prescribed drugs in his system: amphetamines, methamphetamines, diazepam, Nordazepam, temazepam and oxycodone.

The 44-year-old’s lawyer told the court his client was on his way to support his two-year-old daughter, who was unwell. The girl was born with multiple conditions, including a congenital heart condition and cerebral palsy.

She died in February 2023 from her heart condition and a short time after Mr Van Wenseen was again caught and charged with alleged drug driving.

In sentencing, Judge Dean Morzone told the court that the character references tendered in court showed that the defendant was “highly regarded”.

“You are recognised as someone who is respected. As someone supportive and considerate,” Judge Morzone said.

“But not on that day in respect to that 86-year-old woman who was simply making her way home from church and significantly not in how you have treated yourself in your own health and care.”

The driver ran a red light before he hit an 86-year-old woman who had just left church.

He explained that the 86-year-old woman’s life had “drastically changed” since the accident.

Four years later the woman says many of her injuries have not healed.

She has had to walk with a cane since the incident, can no longer read, and had to stop her volunteer work.

Judge Morzone said that while the man had entered into rehabilitation in 2022 and was dealing with “unbearable loss” he “must be sentenced as a punishment”.

He found Mr Van Wenseen guilty and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment with a parole date of March 11, 2024. His licence was also suspended for 18 months.

Originally published as Cairns crime: Stanley Floyd Van Wenseen sentenced over hit-and-run of 86-year-old woman