Man cleared of causing girlfriend’s death

A Masterton man who said his girlfriend was driving during the crash that killed her has been acquitted of careless driving causing her death.

Eamonn Mathew Woods, 30, appeared in Masterton District Court yesterday on the final day of a trial arising from the death of Laura Jessop, 19, in an accident on the Masterton-Castlepoint road on May 5 last year.

Judge Barbara Morris said in her decision that while Woods did not deny driving earlier in the day, the police had not ruled out the possibility Jessop was the driver at the time of the accident, meaning she had to dismiss the charge.

Woods’ lawyer Noel Sainsbury said during Friday’s first day of the judge-alone trial that Woods accepted he had picked Jessop up for a drive in his car toward Castlepoint, but remembered stopping just outside Masterton to let her drive.

His last memory was getting into the passenger seat and going to sleep shortly after the pair stopped for a cigarette.

The next thing he remembered was waking up in a helicopter as he was being flown to Wellington Hospital with severe injuries.

Jessop died soon after the crash, when the rolled several times into a ditch.

Both were thrown clear during the crash, which was not witnessed by anyone.

A passerby who was first on the scene, ambulance paramedics, a firefighter and a doctor had told the court that, after the crash, Woods had made statements suggesting he admitted being the driver, such as ‘‘I f...ed up’’ and ‘‘I’ve done something really stupid – I’m an idiot’’.

In a tape of a police interview in July last year, a police officer tells Woods that Jessop’s parents had said she failed a driving test because of poor vision and did not know how to drive, and that there was medical evidence that Woods’ injuries were consistent with being hit by a steering wheel.

But in his closing submissions yesterday, Sainsbury said police had not produced any evidence in court backing these claims.

He said any ‘‘vague, ambiguous’’ statements Woods is alleged to have made immediately after the crash could not be relied on because he was concussed.

‘‘He was simply trying to make sense of the situation he had found himself in. It’s not an admission at all.’’