00:00Immeasurable grief. Jeremiah Tammer Hemmingson was just 14 when he was critically injured
00:10when the car he was in collided with a ute on the Barton Highway. He survived for another
00:15eight months, dying in August in a Sydney hospital with his family by his side. Also
00:21killed was 19-year-old Joshua Stewart, whose mother told the court of her indescribable
00:28pain over his loss. Sentencing the driver today, Justice David Mossop said the 15 victim
00:35impact statements had made for difficult listening. Any summary will be inadequate to capture the
00:41expressions of grief they have suffered. Justice Mossop said for Mr Hemmingson's family there had
00:47not been an immediate loss, but a period of substantial pain. The court heard the accused
00:54had never driven before he stole the car, and as those who stopped to help worked to get Mr Hemmingson
01:00to hospital and to cut Mr Stewart from the car, he told them,
01:05Arrest me now. It's my fault. Justice Mossop read the court his apology. I cannot promise that I will
01:13not make more mistakes in life, but I will try my best to change for the better. That led Justice
01:20Mossop to reflect that it wasn't clear that his regret will lead to change. He said it had been
01:27difficult to balance the teenager's profound disadvantage against the seriousness of the crime,
01:33before sentencing him to five years and three months jail to be suspended after two years. Mr
01:40Hemmingson's family has called for change. Jeremiah Tammer did not get justice today. While the judge
01:48acknowledged our family's pain and suffering, the laws for dangerous driving are an insult to victims
01:54and their families. The laws must change. The now 15-year-old boy will be eligible for release in
02:01September next year.
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