Legal experts say a decision to allow the driver involved in the Daylesford crash – which killed five people – to walk free could be challenged by prosecutors.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The Australian Lawyers' Alliance says that the Victorian Director of Public Prosecution
00:07has the power to directly indict 67-year-old William Swale, even though a magistrate has
00:14thrown out the charges against him.
00:16The Alliance says that this option has always been in the fabric of Victoria's criminal
00:21justice system, although it's not commonly used and realistically it would be a pretty
00:26brave move by the DPP to take this option given that the magistrate ruled that there
00:32was insufficient evidence to support a conviction if this case went before a jury.
00:38Now if we just remind our viewers about this particular case and how this idyllic Sunday
00:44afternoon turned to absolute tragedy when an SUV mounted the kerb and crashed into a
00:51group of diners, killing five people and injuring others.
00:56Now behind the wheel of that car was William Swale, but his lawyers argued that this was
01:03not a voluntary and conscious act and that's because he had suffered a hypoglycemic episode
01:11caused by dangerously low blood sugar levels brought about by his type 1 diabetes.
01:18Now this is something that the magistrate agreed that prosecutors had failed to prove
01:24otherwise, that it was a voluntary act and the magistrate said that this was a key element
01:30of those culpable driving charges causing death and without that the evidence against
01:36Mr Swale was weak and there was a minimal chance of any successful conviction.
01:43We've also heard from Brian Hood who is the Mayor of the Hepburn Shire and he says that
01:48the Council was in the early planning stages of just how they were going to go about commemorating
01:53the first anniversary of this horrific crash.
01:57He says they'd been speaking to counselling experts as well as the families on how to
02:02make it a sensitive and respectful commemoration, but this no doubt will cast a long shadow
02:08over those events and he says that many people in the community will also feel confused and
02:16upset by the legal intricacies of this case.
02:19In the meantime, Mr Swale's lawyers say they will be applying for legal costs from the
02:25Police Chief Commissioner.