MAN SENTENCED OVER MANSLAUGHTER OF VIETNAM VETERAN
24-year-old admits manslaughter of decorated war vet Norman Olsen
THE 24-year-old man who admitted causing the death of good Samaritan Norman Olsen has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail.
James Darren David Callow will spend at least four years behind bars before he will be eligible to apply for release on parole.
Callow pleaded guilty to manslaughter arising from the death of the decorated Vietnam War veteran who died after hitting his head on the street during a scuffle with Callow on the afternoon of February 22, last year.
Mr Olsen and his wife Isabelle had been returning to their Tweed Heads home from a visit with his daughter Katie Lowe and her four children when he saw Callow assaulting a woman holding a small child in her arms on the Bridge St footpath.
Pulling his car over to the side of the street, the 65-year-old said “Oh, we can’t have that” and got out and confronted Callow.
The court was shown graphic video footage of the moment Mr Olsen fell backwards onto a Wilsonton street, prompting an audible gasp from the public gallery.
His widow and daughter Katie Lowe sat quietly sobbing in the public gallery as footage of the incident, taken from a CCTV camera fixed to a building on Bridge St, was played to the court.
Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso told the court Callow and the woman victim had been in a previous relationship and had a two-year-old daughter.
Both at the time of the incident had new partners and Callow and his girlfriend had travelled from New South Wales to Toowoomba so he could visit his daughter.
However, after an application for a cash loan had been turned down that morning, Callow had become agitated and when his ex-partner refused to give him money he became angry and argued with her.
Callow had taken off his shirt and walked onto Bridge St inviting vehicles to run over him before returning to the footpath.
In the CCTV footage, Callow is then seen to grapple with the woman, seemingly trying to take the child from her arms.
The woman falls to the footpath still holding her child as Callow stood over her, assaulting her, while his girlfriend tried to drag him off the woman on the ground.
At that point, Mr and Mrs Olsen were driving past and, seeing the incident unfold,
Mr Olsen pulled over and went to help the young mother under assault.
Mr Olsen is seen trying to pull Callow away and the two men engaged in a wrestle during which time the mother and her toddler daughter are able to get away.
The scuffle continued until Mr Olsen, standing on the gutter with his back to the traffic, is struck by Callow and he falls backwards onto his back, hitting his head on the road, rendering him unconscious.
Mr Olsen was taken by ambulance to Toowoomba Hospital before being transferred to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane where two days after the incident, having been declared brain dead, he died after his life support was turned off.
Ms Lowe, a 31-year-old single mother of four, was visibly shaking as she took the witness stand to read aloud her victim impact statement in which she told of the devastation her father’s death had had on her and her family.
Ms Lowe spoke of how close she and her father were and that they had spoken daily.
The Vietnam War hero was her hero too, she said.
Outside court after the sentence hearing, Ms Lowe briefly spoke to media saying the sentencing laws in Australia simply didn’t adequately reflect the crime committed or loss to the victim’s family.
Callow would eventually be released, she said, but there was no release for her and her family.
Ms Lowe said her father’s actions that day had in fact saved three lives, that of the woman being assaulted by Callow, her two-year-old daughter she had desperately tried to keep safe, and the man who received her father’s liver by organ donation.
The police who investigated the case have nominated Mr Olsen for a posthumous bravery award.