An unlicensed driver who lost control of a four-wheel drive and catastrophically injured an eight-year-old boy will walk free from jail in six months.
Demet Aydin’s two sons were playing soccer in a laneway behind their grandmother’s house in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Braybrook in September 2023 when Thanh Ngoc Vo attempted to park his four-wheel drive.
The 49-year-old Vietnamese national mistook the accelerator for the brake and ran over the two boys.
One of the boys was unscathed but eight-year-old Huseyin Pek was pinned to a Prius and catastrophically injured.
He was hospitalised for 50 days and underwent massive blood transfusions and multiple surgeries.
Vo had only been in Australia for five days before the crash and did not have a driver’s license at the time.
His letter of apology to the victims was heard in County Court today.
Judge Duncan Allen believed in his remorse and good character and sentenced him to ten months in jail for dangerous driving causing serious injury.
He was also ordered to serve a community corrections order.
“There’s absolutely no doubt about the depth of the suffering, about the devastation this family suffered,” Allen said in court today.
Vo has already served four months behind bars and will serve another six months before he is released.
Aydin, who sobbed throughout the hearing, rejected Vo’s apology and told reporters outside court she didn’t believe he was remorseful.
“No. I just don’t believe it,” she said.
