Wracked with guilt

A 71-year-old Dunedin vegetarian, who says a prayer for plants before he eats them, is struggling with the fact he killed a pedestrian, a court has heard. Roger Trotter-Johnson pleaded guilty to careless driving causing the death of 78-year-old Margaret Mary Jane Herbert before the Dunedin District Court. Judge Dominic Flatley at sentencing yesterday called the February 25 tragedy “a terrible accident”. Family of Herbert were in court for the hearing and afterwards told the Otago Daily Times they did not bear any animosity to Trotter-Johnson. “There’s a lot of pain he’s been going through,” the victim’s son Barry Homan said. Defence counsel Andrew More also stressed the ordeal his client had undergone, while acknowledging it was incomparable to the plight of the victim and her family. “He lives by a mantra of: do no harm to others.” More said the defendant had used yoga and meditation to cope with his guilt. Trotter-Johnson was a vegetarian, he told the court, “who says a prayer for the plants he eats before he eats them”. It was not the first time TrotterJohnson had been responsible for an accident. Judge Flatley noted he had been convicted of careless driving causing injury in 2009. Judge Flatley sentenced Trotter-Johnson to 150 hours’ community work and banned him from driving for nine months. The defendant was ordered to pay $10,000, which he had borrowed from a friend in Australia, to Herbert’s family.