Former police minister Troy Grant has detailed a family history of sleepwalking, including his own experience of waking up in a stranger’s home, during a trial where his father is accused of a fatal hit-and-run crash.
Kenneth Grant, 72, is facing a judge-alone trial in Newcastle District Court accused of running over scientist Tony Greenfield on November 30, 2019, after they separately left a Christmas party in the Hunter region.
Troy Grant (left) pictured with his father Kenneth Grant in December 2019.Credit: James Alcock
Mr Grant has argued he was sleepwalking at the time or was experiencing temporary memory loss as part of a condition known as transient global amnesia.
He has pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death, failing to stop and assist after a vehicle impact causing death, and not stopping during a police pursuit.
Mr Grant had been drinking alcohol at the party, and when he was stopped by police due to erratic driving, a breath test and blood test returned readings of 0.108 and 0.194.
On Monday, Troy Grant told the trial that his father’s cognitive function and general health had been declining in the years leading up to the crash, including becoming disorderly in his dress and not being aware at times that he had injured himself.
Troy Grant is the former police minister for NSW.Credit: Peter Rae
“I remember one time he had a leg injury that had turned septic ... it had a horrendous odour,” the former politician said. “That’s been a repetitive behaviour over the last five years.”
Mr Grant said he had recently noticed increasing bouts of “absent-mindedness” in his father, including a habit of leaving his house completely unlocked with the garage door open when he was not home.
On one occasion, Mr Grant said, police woke him with a phone call at 3am to say they were searching his father’s house due to a concern for his welfare. He grimly steeled himself for a body to be located, however it was discovered that his father was staying with a relative at Tweed Heads and had just left his house open.
Mr Grant said there were several “notable incidents” of his father sleepwalking, including an incident when Mr Grant was about 14 of his father trying to climb out of a bedroom window in the middle of the night before being stopped by his wife.
“His eyes were open, he was upright, but he just didn’t look like he was with it,” Mr Grant said.
In another incident, Mr Grant awoke to find his cranky mother changing the sheets on her bed because his father had sleepwalked into the yard and activated sprinklers, then returned to bed while still wet, bringing grass and dirt with him.
Mr Grant detailed his own “embarrassing” experience with sleepwalking, when he was on a holiday with friends aged 17 and woke up in the house of a random woman who was poking him with a broom.
“I didn’t know who this lady was; a complete stranger,” Mr Grant said. “She just kept repeating ‘who are you, who are you, get out, get out’.”
Mr Grant said he left the house and managed to find his way back to his holiday accommodation, and afterwards was given the nickname “Goldilocks”.
He recounted another sleepwalking incident, where he interrupted one of his mother’s Tupperware parties in 1988 to kneel in front of her and offer her a miniature cricket bat while wearing a blanket from his bed as a cape.
“It obviously brought a fair bit of laughter to the ladies at the Tupperware party,” Mr Grant said, adding that his actions became part of the family folklore.
Dr John O’Neill, a neurology specialist at St Vincent’s clinic, told the trial Kenneth Grant has remained consistent in his account of what happened on the evening of the crash, including having no memory of key events.
Dr O’Neill said Mr Grant “clearly looked intoxicated” in police dash cam footage, but he does not think alcohol alone would have caused amnesia. The specialist said he thought the most likely cause for the memory loss was transient global amnesia.
Mr Grant said since his father has been charged, “to my knowledge, he hasn’t drunk ... he swears he hasn’t touched a drop”.
The trial continues.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.