The father of former police minister Troy Grant was seen drinking red wine and dozing in a chair less than an hour before he allegedly ran over a pedestrian in a fatal hit-and-run crash, a court has been told.
Kenneth Grant, 72, is on trial in Newcastle District Court accused of running over scientist Tony Greenfield on the evening of November 30, 2019, after they separately left a Christmas party in the Hunter region.
Kenneth Grant, pictured in 2019, has pleaded not guilty.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.
On Tuesday, Dr Anup Desai – a specialist in respiratory and sleep medicine – told the judge-alone trial he did not believe Mr Grant was sleepwalking that night. This was for several reasons, including that a person usually needs to be asleep for 30 to 40 minutes to enter the state that sleepwalking occurs in.
“Firstly, there was no evidence I could find that he’d actually been asleep,” Dr Desai said.
“Secondly, and importantly, from what I could understand, there was an extremely long period of abnormal behaviour and confusion, from approximately 9.50pm to 2pm the next day, which is inconsistent with sleepwalking.”
Killed in 2019: scientist Tony Greenfield.
Dr Desai said alcohol could provide an “alternative explanation” for Mr Grant’s behaviour.
Defence barrister Phillip Boulten, SC, pointed out that one witness at the Christmas party described seeing Mr Grant “sitting on a chair, drinking a glass of red wine, nodding off to sleep” sometime between 10.45pm and 11pm.
The crash occurred at 11.25pm, about 800 metres from the party, and Mr Grant was stopped by police several kilometres away.
Mr Boulten said if his client nodded off to sleep at 10.45pm, there was enough time for him to enter the slow-wave sleep cycle required for him to be driving on autopilot at the time of the crash.
Prosecutor Lee Carr, SC, said another witness described Mr Grant staggering from the toilet in the laundry at about 11pm and pulling up his pants after they fell down in front of other partygoers.
Dr Desai said it is “extremely unusual” for someone to sleepwalk at Mr Grant’s age.
He said he also doubts that sleepwalkers can drive cars, having never seen a case in his 20 years of clinical experience.
“Perhaps they might drive a short distance and have an accident,” Dr Desai said. “I’m thinking a somnambulist might be able to get into a car, turn it on, drive straight, run into a tree – something like that. Metres, thirty seconds.”
The court was told sleepwalking is typically “brief, in the order of minutes” and usually ends when someone comes to full awareness, such as waking up out of bed, or returns to bed without waking.
Dr Desai said Mr Grant most likely did sleepwalk as a teenager, but as he became older his activities were more likely attributable to “alcohol-related complex behaviour” rather than an ongoing sleep disorder.
In two police interviews played to the court, Mr Grant said he could not remember hitting anyone or anything. He said he had been a police officer for 33 years, and if he was aware he had hit someone he would have stopped.
Mr Grant said when he first saw police lights flashing behind his car, he thought he was going to be given a random breath test.
“I didn’t know there was a collision; I had no idea until the police stopped me,” he said. “I thought they might have been doing an RBT on me ... I shouldn’t have driven, because I was over the limit ... I just wouldn’t have done it under normal circumstances.
“Something happened. I don’t know if I fell over, I might have hit my head on something, had a memory loss. I’m just trying to think ‘why’.”
Troy Grant is expected to give evidence later this week about his father’s medical history.
The trial continues.
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