19yo driver denied bail after pregnant woman dies in Sydney crash

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The teenager accused of causing the car crash which killed a heavily pregnant mother in Sydney on Friday has been denied bail.   The nineteen-year-old Aaron Papazoglu appeared in court via video link and is facing a string of charges including dangerous driving occasioning death. Reporter Nabil Al-Nashar has more from outside Parramatta Court.

Transcript

00:00There was a showdown between police prosecution and Mr. Papazoglu's defense lawyer over his

00:07bail application.

00:09Police prosecution was represented by Sergeant Candace Chapman, who argued in court that

00:14he should be denied bail, considering the seriousness and nature of the matter, and that

00:19custodial sentencing, in her opinion, is a likely outcome in this case.

00:24She also noted that if he was granted bail, prosecution would have two major concerns.

00:30One is that there could be a likely failure to appear and the endangering of the safety

00:35of the community, given the nature of the case.

00:38She alleged that Mr. Papazoglu was speeding and intentionally ran a yellow light, saying

00:44that this is a matter that wasn't a momentary lapse in judgment, that he chose to proceed

00:50through an orange light at an excessive speed, in a manner that is dangerous.

00:55Now this was a point that was questioned by Magistrate Ray Plibersek, who said that so far

01:01in front of him there is no evidence to suggest that there was excessive speed, and that the

01:05prosecution was asking the court to make an inference.

01:09And Nabil, his lawyer also spoke.

01:12What did they have to say?

01:16His lawyer argued that the Macquarie University student is a law-abiding citizen with no criminal

01:21history, no traffic violation history as well, and that he has strong ties to his community.

01:29He said there was no alcohol, there was no drugs, there was no police pursuit, and there

01:34was no street racing in his history.

01:37He also countered the prosecution's claim about Mr. Papazoglu's alleged negligence, saying that

01:43it wasn't a prolonged intentional act.

01:46And I quote that this was, by all terms of the word, a tragic outcome to a series of unfortunate

01:52events that led to this sequence.

01:54Here's a bit of him outside of court today.

01:55He's a young man, it's his first time in custody.

01:59So we were expecting that he may be released, because with all of these matters there's a

02:03lot of moving parts.

02:06And so obviously the crash investigation unit is in it.

02:09They are a very talented team of investigators, and I think that by the time all of that comes

02:15out, there will be a lot more information.

02:17But look, as the magistrate said, it's just a tragic situation from all involved.

02:22He's upset, and I think first and foremost, heart and prayer goes out to the families

02:27of the young woman that lost her life.

02:33Mr. Schmidt also provided statements to the court from Mr. Papazoglu's mother and an uncle

02:39to show that he is of good character.

02:42But in the end, Magistrate Plibersek sided with the police prosecution, decided to deny

02:47the bail given the seriousness and the nature of this matter.

02:50All right, Nabil Al-Nashar in Parramatta there for us.

02:53Thanks for the update.

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