Parents fear visitor driver won’t serve time
The parents of the Tauranga motorcyclist who died after an inexperienced foreign driver veered into his path want her to do her time before leaving the country.
Jieling Xiao, 27, a Chinese national, caused the death of Rhys Middleton, 23, in the Waitangi Weekend crash.
She pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving causing death and in June was sentenced, at the Napier District Court, to 17 months in prison.
Yesterday, however, her jail term was quashed by a High Court judge who said Xiao’s driving was “inexperienced”. Her sentence was reduced to nine months’ home detention and 150 hours’ community work.
Middleton’s parents feared Xiao would now be deported without completing her sentence.
“Jieling gets to go home to her family and live out the rest of her life,” Judy Richards said. “We will all be suffering for the rest of ours.”
Mike Middleton said he could never forgive Xiao for getting out on the road, knowing she wasn’t a good driver.
“The cops said she would never have made Taupo, without killing someone or herself,” he said. “I don’t call it an accident.”
Richards and Middleton want Immigration New Zealand to ensure those convicted of a crime serve their time before being deported.
“If I’d killed someone in another country I’d expect to do the time,” Richards said. “She needs to take ownership of what she’s done.”
On Tuesday, Xiao’s lawyer appealed her prison sentence on the basis it was inexperience not “dangerous driving” that led to the crash.
In a decision released yesterday, Justice Jillian Mallon granted the appeal and reduced Xiao’s sentence.
While Mallon agreed with the judge who’d delivered the initial sentence that deterrence was necessary, she felt home detention was more appropriate.
She said the preceding judge's concerns that Xiao would be deported should not have had any bearing on the sentence.
Mallon also said Xiao had no prior convictions, had shown remorse, offered reparation and was considered to be at low risk of reoffending.