NT prosecutors appeal home detention sentence of delivery driver Aryan Aryan
A young delivery driver who ran over three homeless people could have his home detention order appealed amid a Supreme Court battle.
A Darwin delivery driver who continued on his paper route after reversing over three older Territorians sleeping rough could have his sentence appealed, with prosecutors arguing his actions were an ‘egregious breach of his moral duties’.
Aryan Aryan was on his early morning delivery run when he twice ran over a 63-year-old woman, a 58-year-old man and a 50-year-old man while attempting a U-turn on a Brinkin street on April 19, 2024.
The 21-year-old initially did not know what the thumps under his van were, but as he reversed again the headlights of the van illuminated the horrifying scene, which the local court heard were “horrible, sickening and tragic”.
Aryan told investigators he panicked and drove off, abandoning his three seriously injured victims.
The courts have heard that the 63-year-old woman died as a result of her injuries, and while the 58-year-old also passed away his death could not be conclusively linked to the crash due to significant underlying factors.
The court has repeatedly heard there was no suggestion the three people were hit deliberately.
Despite leaving these three vulnerable people without any medical help for more than 40 minutes, Aryan was not sentenced to any time in prison.
In July, Darwin Local Court Judge Giles O’Brien-Hartcher sentenced the young man to a four month home detention order for the fatal hit and run, followed by a seven month suspended sentence for the two counts of causing serious harm.
It was a sentence that prosecutor Nicole Hopper argued was manifestly inadequate in the Supreme Court on Monday.
Ms Hopper argued that the local court sentence failed to encompass the severity knowingly leaving behind the three seriously injured people.
“Offending of this kind is an egregious breach of the moral duty that each of us as human beings owe each other,” she said.
“When our actions result in serious or fatal injury to another person, we must ensure that the person is urgently assisted to obtain medical treatment.”
Ms Hopper said while it was accepted he did not know in the moment that he had hit three people — twice — when he drove off he was fully aware he had “seriously or possibly fatally injured three people”.
“It’s a matter of logic that the seriousness of the conduct in deciding to leave the scene without rendering aid is increased,” Ms Hopper said.
She highlighted the vulnerability of Aryan’s three victims, who “had nowhere more safe and secure to sleep in the community than on a bitumen road on a dark street on a quiet cul-de-sac”.
“That they were left alone and gravely injured after having been twice run over, demonstrates the importance of community protection in the exercise of sentencing discretion,” Ms Hopper said
Rather than Ayran calling triple-0, the local court previously heard that the Top End Distribution driver — which was a NT News subcontractor to deliver papers — continued on his delivery route.
Aryan only reported the incident when he arrived at the Berrimah Depot, taking another person back to the scene and then calling triple-0.
While the 21-year-old did remain on scene until police and paramedics arrived, he did not initially tell investigators he was the driver.
It was only when his employer contacted police that Aryan admitted his involvement.
Ms Hooper said the maximum penalty for hit and run causing serious harm was seven years in prison, while fleeing a fatal crash incurred a potential 10 year sentence.
Justice Meredith Huntingford highlighted that Ayran was sentenced for each of his victims, although noted “the individual sentences imposed seem to be well shy of the general range of the comparatives”.
However, Defence barrister Jon Tippett said the sentences were well within the range of sentencing options, stating “there are no errors in this at all”.
Mr Tippett said while the young man with no priors did not spend any further time in a cell, a four-month home detention order was still considered as a custodial sentence in the eyes of the law.
He maintained the 21-year-old’s panicked decision to drive away remained “essentially one act”, comparing it to a crash in which a driver hits a car with multiple people inside.
“The fact that the driving caught three people, asleep on the roadway, can’t increase... the sentence that would otherwise be imposed for the failure to report, and the failure to remain at the scene and the failure to assist,” he said.
Mr Tippet also called on Justice Meredith Huntingford to consider the realities of the “busy” local court judge, noting that the lower courts did not have the same luxuries of time in explaining their full sentencing decision making process.
He highlighted that the sentencing judge said he had “just got hold of things” and was “under pressure”, stating:“He did his best... but he was really winging it.”.
“Judges — as you know only too well because you’re one of them — go through these (sentencing) exercises all the time to see where things fit,” Mr Tippett said.
Mr Tippett also cautioned against resentencing the young man who was already nearing the end of his home detention order, which is due to expire on November 23.
“There is no body that would be more bitter than a person who at one point has been released, pursuant to quite a detailed sentencing exercise, and then finds out months later about another court who says ‘you have to go to jail’,” he said.
Justice Huntingford adjourned her decision to a later date.
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Originally published as NT prosecutors appeal home detention sentence of delivery driver Aryan Aryan
