DPP v Grey [2025] ACTSC 509

1. Ronan Jason Grey, you have pleaded guilty to a single count of culpable driving causing death (CAN 9692/2024) contrary to s 29(2) of the Crimes Act 1900 (ACT).

2. The maximum penalty for this offence is 14 years’ imprisonment.

3. You pleaded guilty on 10 April 2025, at mention in the Magistrates Court prior to the committal of this matter to the Supreme Court. As a result, both the prosecution and your counsel submitted that a discount of 25 percent is appropriate. In the exercise of my discretion, I consider that the full discount of 25 percent should be afforded to you in the calculation of your sentence.

4. In relation to this charge, you asked that a list of additional offences, which was provided to the Court at the sentence, be taken into account in sentencing. Attached to these sentencing remarks is a schedule of the additional offences, the dates of the offences, when guilty pleas were entered and maximum penalties. In accordance with your request, the following additional offences are to be considered pursuant to Pt 4.4 of the Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005 (ACT) in making a sentence-related order for the principal offence. (a) CAN 9694/2024 – Use Unregistered Vehicle (contrary to s 18(1) of the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Act 1999 (ACT)); the maximum penalty for this offence is a fine of $8000; (b) CAN 9695/2024 – Use Uninsured Motor Vehicle (contrary to s 289(1) of the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2019 (ACT)); the maximum penalty for this offence is a fine of $3200; (c) CAN 9697/2024 – Numberplate Not Properly Issued (contrary to s 22(1)(a) of the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Act; the maximum penalty for this offence is a fine of $3200; and (d) CAN 9698/2024 - Drive Unsafely Maintained Vehicle (contrary to s 107(2) of the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulations 2000 (ACT)); the maximum penalty for this offence is a fine of $3200.

Facts

5. An agreed statement of facts was contained in the prosecution tender bundle which was tendered in Court. At about 2:30pm on Wednesday, 20 March 2024, the deceased, ACJ, was riding her bicycle east along Lady Denman Drive, Yarralumla in the ACT. Lady Denman Drive is an arterial road which, at the relevant location, runs in a general east west direction. The road is constructed of bitumen; it was in good condition and the driving conditions were good even though the weather was overcast. The road surface was dry.

6. At the relevant location, the roadway comprised a single lane carriageway running in each direction, separated by a white painted double line. At the time, Ms ACJ was riding a light blue coloured bicycle on the outer edge on the eastbound carriageway. Her bicycle was about 30 m to the rear of a bicycle ridden by Mr T who was also riding in an easterly direction along the same carriageway. At the same time, Mr P was driving his vehicle in a westerly direction along Lady Denman Drive. His vehicle was overtaken by a grey coloured BMW sedan which carried Queensland registration plates. This was your vehicle, and you were driving.

7. The vehicle driven by you overtook the vehicle driven by Mr P. In doing so, you crossed over the double white lines in the middle of the road and you drove on the wrong side of the roadway, namely in the eastbound carriageway. Mr P estimated that, at the time you drove your vehicle past his vehicle, you were driving at an excessive speed. His estimate was that you were driving at about 20 to 30 km/h more than the posted speed limit of 70 km/h. His estimate therefore was that you were driving somewhere between 90 and 100 km/h. In my judgment, it is not possible to attribute a sufficient level of accuracy to this estimation to accept it as determinative. In my deliberations, I have treated this evidence only as an estimation that you were driving at an excessive speed. You accept that you were driving at an excessive speed at the time. That is the way in which I have proceeded.

8. After you overtook his vehicle, you brought your vehicle back onto the westbound carriageway of the road. You continued to drive at an excessive speed, and you were driving towards an intersection called the Glenloch Interchange. At the eastern corner of the Glenloch Interchange, there is a traffic light controlled pedestrian crossing. After Mr T had ridden his bicycle past that pedestrian crossing, he observed your vehicle travelling in the opposite direction to him, over the crest of a hill in front of him. He described your manner of driving as being out of control. You accept this assessment by him. At that time, Mr T saw your vehicle travelling at high speed and passing backwards and forwards across the double white dividing line. It then suddenly moved back into the westbound lane. That occurred at about the time your vehicle drove past Mr T and so he was in a position to make observations of the manner of your driving and the speed of your vehicle.

9. Mr T then observed your vehicle approaching the pedestrian crossing at high speed. He saw your vehicle begin to rotate from the rear in a clockwise direction. Your vehicle was out of control. Your vehicle crossed over onto the incorrect side of the road and was sliding in a broadside fashion so that your vehicle was sliding sideways directly across the roadway. The side of your vehicle collided with Ms ACJ as she was riding along the roadway. It is accepted that the force of this impact caused her body to be accelerated to the extent of 92 km/h in the opposite direction to which she was then riding. As a result of the impact, Ms ACJ and her bicycle landed on a grassed area on the western side of Lady Denman Drive, about 40 m from the point of impact.

10. The vehicle driven by you continued to slide on the roadway until it struck a guardrail on the western side of the roadway. Your vehicle then rebounded off the guardrail and slid across the roadway to its eastern side, and facing in the reverse direction from which you had been driving. Mr P then arrived at the collision scene and made observations of you, and other people arrived at the scene and attempted to commence cardiopulmonary resuscitation upon Ms ACJ. Police and ambulance attended, and further resuscitation of Ms ACJ was attempted using a defibrillator, but no heart rhythm was detected, and any plan for use of the defibrillator was terminated.

11. A post-mortem conducted upon Ms ACJ revealed that she had sustained the following injuries: (a) head injury with fracturing of the mandible; (b) multiple rib fractures; (c) bilateral haemopneumothoraces; (d) fracturing of thoracic and lumbar spine; (e) retroperitoneal haematoma; and (f) multiple upper and lower limb comminuted and compound fractures.

12. The injuries sustained by Ms ACJ were not survivable. After being transported to the Canberra Hospital, a declaration was made by an emergency physician that her life was extinct.

13. Your vehicle, a grey coloured BMW 330i sedan, carried Queensland registration plates. Those registration plates had been issued to a white coloured BMW 318i sedan, not your vehicle. Your vehicle was issued with a Victorian registration plate RWC724 but that had expired on 10 March 2024, about 10 days before this collision. On the date of the collision, 20 March 2024, this vehicle driven by you was both unregistered and uninsured.

14. Police executed a search warrant on your vehicle and seized a certificate of inspection (number 1281768) completed by an authorised Inspector on 15 March 2024, five days before this collision. The report discloses that your vehicle had failed an inspection due to worn bushes in the lower control arm and worn tyres. Police undertook a mechanical inspection which disclosed that the required repairs necessary under the certificate of inspection of 15 March 2024 had not been completed. The vehicle therefore carried false registration plates, was unregistered, was uninsured and was not roadworthy. You were aware of all these issues with the car at the time you decided to drive it on that day. You then drove in the very dangerous manner as I have described above, despite knowing of everything that was wrong with the car mechanically and its lack of registration and insurance.

15. I have received a pre-sentence report dated 5 August 2025 signed by a community corrections officer and a team leader. You reported early memories of physical abuse by your father and ongoing emotional abuse from your mother because of her long-standing alcoholism. Your parents divorced when you were about three years of age and you lived with your alcoholic mother. You have limited contact now with your parents and you have only distant relationships with your siblings, although a sister lives in the same residential complex as you. Your primary sources of familial support are your grandmother and your cousin. You have been in a relationship with your partner for a number of years, but you are now separating because of the strain of these offences. You live alone and have done so for at least two years.

16. You completed Year 10 schooling, and you participated in the Badgers boys education program designed to build self-improvement and leadership skills. You were suspended in primary school and high school for fighting and you describe yourself as an angry and emotional child. You have attempted to study project management but have paused these studies because of these events. You worked full-time as a bar manager until recently. You resigned full-time work and worked part-time until such time as you went into custody.

17. You have limited supports of your former partner and a best friend. You describe yourself as a loner. You tried cannabis once as a teenager. You are not a heavy consumer of alcohol although you have been charged with drink-driving after these current offences. You were unable to undertake a urinalysis test when recently requested, which is problematic.

18. You have received counselling from a very young age and this commenced in your school years. In the past two years, you have engaged with psychological counselling. You have diagnoses of major depressive disorder, anxiety, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. You have made two significant attempts at suicide, both prior to and following this offending. You were admitted to hospital in April 2023 for an intentional overdose. You were referred to support services, but you disengaged. You did not pursue the mental health supports arranged by your general practitioner. In April 2025, you again attempted suicide.

19. At the time of this offence, you were lonely. Your car made you feel good and better than just sitting at home. It was not until the day of submissions that you disclosed that this was the second car you had owned and that your mother had given you money to purchase this car after you had an accident in the first car you owned, only a week prior to these events. You accept that you made very poor choices about driving your car, that you were aware that it had failed the registration inspection, that you were aware that you were driving with bald tires, that whilst your car was in that condition you were speeding, and that you illegally overtook other vehicles. You have regretted your choices.

20. You express remorse for the victim’s family and friends. You accept that you were driving whilst you were emotionally distressed and this impaired your judgement. You desire to achieve mental health stability after sentencing. This remorse is reflected in the letter that you read to the court from the witness box at the time of the sentencing submissions. In that letter, you did not attempt to deflect from your responsibility for the results of your conduct, and that you have pleaded guilty to reflects the genuine remorse that you feel for the victim and her family and friends. You are aware of the many connections that the victim had made in Canberra in the short time that she lived here, including her involvement in tennis coaching.

21. You do not blame your upbringing for the decision you made to drive the car on that day, although you ask for those circumstances to be taken into account. You were raised in a very compromised household and child abuse was ever present. You were subject to violence at the hands of your father and abuse at the hands of your mother. Your father was a former policeman who suffered his own form of PTSD. You suffered at the hands of your mother due to her alcoholism, drug use, mental instability and verbal violence.

22. When you reached Year 10, you moved away from your mother to join your father and then started getting professional help from a private psychologist. You felt significant guilt and that you deserved your fate at that time. You had a strained relationship with your stepmother and then fell out with your father. Despite enjoying school and the Badgers program, you moved out of your father’s home and went to live with your eldest brother and work full-time as an apprentice carpenter. In time, you realised that you did not enjoy carpentry work and you moved back to Canberra. You shared a house with your best friend, L, but went back to carpentry work. You formed an unhealthy relationship with a young girl, M, you fell out with your friend L, you suffered an injury that prevented you from working and your mental health spiralled downwards, especially following the breakup with M.

23. You later went back into building work but felt like a failure and that led to your first attempted suicide. You were discharged and went back to work as soon as you could. You eventually realised that you did not enjoy building work, and you obtained employment in hospitality, which you found very enjoyable, and you also had some loose contact back with your mother. The references received by the court indicate that you are very suited to the hospitality trade, you are a good manager of people and you have a natural flair for the business. On 13 August 2025, the court was first informed that you had an accident with the first car that you purchased and that car was a write-off. You purchased another car with money sent by your mother. I will deal in more detail with these matters below. You had a real connection with your car and enjoyed driving and the feeling of freedom that it gave you.

24. You cannot understand why you continued to drive a car that you knew was uninsured, unregistered and not roadworthy. You say that, on this occasion, you had written a letter to your friend L some two weeks earlier and you got it into your mind that you wanted to deliver the letter to him personally. But you had not seen this friend L for two years and you gave no consideration to delivering the letter in the many other ways that such a document could be delivered. You say that is why you decided first to drive and then to drive this car on that day. You knew that you were making bad decisions. Regardless, you then decided to drive and drive dangerously without any regard for the safety of anyone else on the road. You accept that it was a statistical certainty that there would be a catastrophic event and that is what has occurred. You accept that your actions have deprived the world of an exceptional woman, and she can no longer do the things that you take for granted but which you now find so difficult. Your actions have deprived your victim’s family of a most cherished and loved family member who planned eventually to return to her home city of Montevideo in her home country of Uruguay.

25. You now have a better appreciation of your instabilities, shortcomings in your decision-making, your risk-taking behaviours and their consequences. You are seeking professional help to overcome your impulsive decision-making. You apologise to the victim’s family, you feel cowardly for not having done that before, but you are not sure how you could do it or whether it was appropriate. You express your deep remorse, and you understand that whatever regret, guilt and shame you feel now cannot compare to the pain and suffering of the victim’s family and friends.

26. I have had regard to the report prepared by Ms Tabitha Frew dated 5 August 2025. I have also had the benefit of cross-examination of Ms Frew by Mr McLaughlin of the DPP. Ms Frew provides a detailed analysis of your background and, in relation to the Bugmy Bar Book, she opines that there is objective evidence of the degree of exposure of you to abuse, neglect and family violence. You were the subject of several child protection concern reports from birth until five years of age. Your mother was forcibly detained under mental health legislation, and she said her relationship with your father was the principal contributor. You were physically abused by your father, your mother attempted suicide, your father was non-compliant with his medications for PTSD, and your life was in complete disarray because of the completely dysfunctional family relationships and marital relationships of your parents.

27. In her assessment of you, Ms Frew said that your patterns of response reveal a much above average score in positive impression management and an average score in self-deceptive enhancement. She said that this profile is typically found in individuals who were aware of their shortcomings, but who want to appear publicly acceptable. At lines 483-489, Ms Frew dealt with your impulsivity, at line 537 and following she dealt with your intellectual impairment and/or learning disability, and at line 585 opined that your conditions falls within the diagnostic criteria from DSM-5-TR, especially for autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which are neurogenic developmental conditions.

28. I have had full regard to the report of Ms Frew of 5 August 2025. I have accepted the findings of Ms Frew that you have a permanent mental health deficiency and neurodevelopmental condition and that your ability to control your actions was moderately impaired by your mental state. In her report from line 111, Ms Frew sets out a detailed history of your background including your education, child protection matters, your relationship with your parents, your work history and your history of relationships. I accept that from a young age you were exposed to significant family violence, suicide attempts by your mother and your father, the abuse of alcohol and drugs by your parents and the need of both of your parents for psychiatric care. I accept the diagnoses of Ms Frew that you are suffering a post-traumatic stress disorder and a major depressive disorder, and that you are intellectually impaired by suffering autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These are lifelong disorders.

29. At line 672 of her report, Ms Frew opines that you were aware that it was wrong to drive the vehicle but that your capacity to recognise the seriousness of the conduct at the time of the offences was impacted by naïveté, inexperience and/or ignorance.

30. Ms Frew was cross-examined on several topics. Page 21 of the transcript records that Ms Frew was cross-examined about her finding that your proneness to impulsivity is improved since the offences. Ms Frew was not aware of your further drink driving offences and would not maintain her opinion having been given that information. Ms Frew discussed impulsive type behaviours for males up to the age of about 25. Such persons are likely to have impulsive behaviours without considering consequences. Ms Frew was not completely aware of how long it had been since you had contact with L, except that it was a couple of years, and she understood that the letter you wrote had not been delivered for at least two weeks after it had been written. Ms Frew confirmed that it was not the case that it was in any emotionally dysregulated state and acting impulsively that you penned the letter and proceeded to climb immediately into your car to go and deliver it. You had some weeks to reflect upon what you were going to do. You are someone who was making poor decisions who has an undeveloped executive function consistent with many males of your age. Ms Frew opined that you categorically knew that by getting into the car you were doing the wrong thing, and you understood that it was unregistered, uninsured and unroadworthy, but you did not focus on those matters on that day.

31. In answer to questions from me, Ms Frew agreed that you knew that you were speeding, and that your decision to get into the car was the wrong thing to do. The opinion expressed by Ms Frew about your naiveté, inexperience and ignorance is, to an extent, inconsistent with the content of a reference received by the court from Mr MM, retired US Army, who was supervised by you in the workplace. None of the qualities that he describes point to your naïveté, inexperience and/or ignorance. Accepting the whole of the report of Ms Frew, she was unable to explain why it was that, even with your background, you got into the car that you knew was unregistered, uninsured, and unroadworthy and that you drove well above the speed limit (some 20 to 30 km/h above the limit), ignored speed limit signs, ignored the requirement to observe double white lines on the middle of the road and overtook other road users at speed and dangerously. This dangerous driving led to you losing control of this unroadworthy vehicle (which required repairs to its steering mechanism) and the catastrophic collision that followed.

32. At that point in the evidence of Ms Frew, the court learned that you had previously owned another car which, only a week or two before the subject collision, you had crashed within a few days of getting it. A week later you procured this car. Ms Frew informed the court that in the first car, you were driving through a roundabout, lost control and crashed the car. The cause of that accident appears to be the roadworthiness of that first car. She agreed that damaging the first car should have been a corrective event in your comprehension of what you were doing with the second car.

33. Ms Frew agreed (transcript, page 35.10) that she had worked from the position of a young man who made a foolish and regrettable decision to drive which has had catastrophic impacts to a position that she reasoned that he must have been impulsive. Ms Frew agreed with that characterisation and said that this still leaves a whole lot of unknown factors, part of which could be simply disregarding the rules.

34. As these comments indicate, I have read and had full regard to all the materials that have been provided by your solicitors. I have had regard to all of the references that I have been given. All of them speak very well of you as a trustworthy and well-intentioned young man who has made something of your life despite the terrible beginnings that you have experienced. I was particularly impressed by the reference from Mr DP who speaks of your attempts to bring your life into order, the support that you are seeking from friends and from professionals, and your deep and abiding remorse. I have no doubt, having listened to your letter to the court, that you are deeply remorseful for your actions.

35. On 13 August 2025, Ms G read out the victim impact statement on behalf of Ms ACJ’s family, some of whom were watching or listening to these court proceedings via an audio-visual link, and some of whom are watching today. The statement speaks of the background of Ms ACJ, her education, her travels, her work, but most importantly her abiding love of her family. It speaks of the immense, impossible to fill, void caused by her loss. Most poignantly, it speaks of an irrational, broken, silence, a deep and quiet pain and that Ms ACJ’s life was valuable and good. I have taken the victim impact statement into account in my deliberations. This court cannot make an order which can undo the terrible wrong that has been done to Ms ACJ and to her family. The family understands that neither this court nor anyone else can do anything to restore a life that has been lost and the beautiful person that Ms ACJ was, or to assuage fully the grief they feel because of the loss of their loved one. Their request is that justice be done to safeguard and guarantee the rights of Ms ACJ by listening to the victim impact statement with empathy and respect.

Objective seriousness

36. I am satisfied of the objective seriousness of this offence. The injuries inflicted upon the victim were fatal. By driving an unroadworthy car, you put many people at risk of serious injury if not worse. Knowing that the car was unroadworthy you then drove at an excessive speed, and you drove erratically based upon the observations of independent observers which I accept. That erratic driving included the speed of your vehicle and the way in which you drove across double white lines in the middle-of-the-road to overtake another vehicle driving at the speed limit. It also included the sudden lurching of your vehicle back onto the correct side of the road which was the genesis of you losing control of the vehicle and the catastrophic collision which followed. I am also satisfied that you ignored warnings in relation to the roadworthiness of the vehicle, the speed at which you should drive and the prohibition against overtaking by the presence of the double white lines in the middle of the road. At the time of the collision, you were 18 years of age, you held a provisional C class license, and I accept the opinion expressed by Ms Frew that your inexperience contributed to the offence. The statement of facts records that the road on which you were driving was frequented by a number of people including other drivers and cyclists. I accept that the inherent risks in driving the vehicle in this way are increased where the vehicle is defective. You drove dangerously and at speed in a defective vehicle and I accept that your moral culpability is increased as a result.

Subjective circumstances

37. You were 18 years of age at the time of the collision, and you are now 20 years of age. I have set out above the detail of the tragedy of your family background, your upbringing and especially the abuse that you sustained at the hands of your parents. I accept that the High Court’s observations in Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37; 249 CLR 571 are pertinent to and have application in this case. I accept, as opined by Ms Frew at lines 285 and following of her report, that these experiences have had a significant impact on your social, emotional, psychological and physical development. I accept that you suffer: PTSD with dissociative symptoms (depersonalisation); major depressive disorder of moderate severity; autism spectrum disorder, level II without intellectual or language impairment; and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, predominantly hyperactive/impulsive presentation.

Criminal history

38. You have no prior convictions.

Plea of guilty

39. You are entitled to a 25 percent discount for your guilty plea.

Time in custody

40. You have been in custody relating to this offence since 13 August 2025. This period will be taken into account by backdating the sentence I impose to 13 August 2025.

41. In sentencing you, I have regard to the requirements of the Crimes (Sentencing) Act.

Orders

42. For those reasons, the following orders are made: (1) On the charge of culpable driving causing death (CAN 9692/2024), you are convicted and sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment, reduced by 25 percent to 3 years’ imprisonment, commencing on 13 August 2025 and ending on 12 August 2028. (2) I am mindful that you are a very young man with your whole life ahead of you and that the final sentence I impose must not be a crushing sentence. I order that, after you have served 15 months of this sentence, the balance of the sentence be suspended upon you entering into an undertaking to comply with your good behaviour obligations under the Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act 2005 (ACT) for a period of three years, with a condition that you be subject to supervision by the Director-General, for a period of three years or such lesser period as the Director-General determines, and in that period to obey all reasonable directions of the Director-General. (3) Further, I make a driver licence disqualification order of 2 years, effective from the date that you are released from prison under s 29(1)(f) of the Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005 (ACT). (4) Liberty to apply.

I certify that the preceding forty-two [42] numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Sentence his Honour Acting Justice Slattery. Associate: Date: Schedule of additional offences to be taken into account Offence Date of offence Date of guilty Maximum plea penalty 1 CAN 9694/2024 – Use 20 March 2024 N/A Fine of $3200 Unregistered Vehicle (contrary to s 18(1) of the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Act 1999 (ACT)) 2 CAN 9695/2024 – Use 20 March 2024 N/A Fine of $8000 Uninsured Motor Vehicle (contrary to s 289(1) of the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2019 (ACT)) 3 CAN 9697/2024 – 20 March 2024 N/A Fine of $3200 Numberplate Not Properly Issued (contrary to s 22(1)(a) of the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Act 4 CAN 9698/2024 – Drive 20 March 2024 N/A Fine of $3200 Unsafely Maintained Vehicle (contrary to s 107(2) of the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000 (ACT))