By Brendan Rees
A drug-fuelled hoon who spun his stolen car out-of-control in a fatal crash in Cranbourne, killing two of his friends, has been jailed.
Dylan Cassidy, 22, was sentenced to 11 years and five months’ jail, after pleading guilty to litany of charges including culpable driving causing death, drive in a manner dangerous, and failing to render assistance after an accident involving death during a Victorian County Court sitting on 20 August.
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Liz Gaynor said: “This was absolutely appalling, incredibly dangerous offending.”
The court was told Cassidy, who has never held a licence, was “wildly out-of-control” and high on drugs when the Holden Commodore he was driving veered on the wrong side of the South Gippsland Highway and slammed into another car on 11 August, 2019.
The crash killed Cassidy’s teenage friends Jordy Kirkwood and Byron Hampton, a former Hallam Senior College student, who were passengers in the car’s back seat, the court heard.
An 18-year-old man in the front seat climbed out, brandishing a knife and had to be restrained before police arrived. Another passenger, a teenage girl, survived but suffered severe injuries.
The court heard Cassidy, who was on bail at the time of his offending, escaped through a window and fled the scene before closed-circuit television captured him returning to the wreckage and grabbing a satchel containing drugs.
The court heard he made no attempt to help anyone at the scene and discarded the drugs on Camms Road as he fled but was apprehended by bystanders shortly after.
The court was told Cassidy was speeding at 102km/h before mounting a centre median strip and becoming airborne. He collided into a car, trapping a mum as her two daughters – aged six and nine – screamed in the back seat, the court heard.
The mother suffered a non-displaced skull fracture and concussion, while one of her daughters who was a “previous active and outgoing girl”, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the court heard.
The court was told in the hours before the crash, witnesses saw the Commodore reaching speeds of 123km/h on a freeway and doing burnouts at the Frankston Bombers Football Club.
Judge Gaynor told Cassidy, who dropped out of school in year 10, that his driving was “disturbing” with a “real chance … of even more deaths and even more serious injury”.
“You have permanently affected the lives of your victims, you have caused two deaths, you have caused serious injuries to two little girls, you have caused immense distress to the families of those people who died,” Judge Gaynor said.
In a victim impact statement, the mother of Byron Hampton, said her son was about to start an electrical apprenticeship and described him as a “gentle boy” who was loved by his family.
The court heard Cassidy had a troubled upbringing and started using cannabis and ecstasy from the age of 12, before becoming addicted to ice at 14. He had also never held a stable job.
In sentencing, Judge Gaynor took into consideration his drug use, disadvantaged background and determination to get off drugs and stop offending but noted that she was guarded about his prospects for rehabilitation.
