The family of a young father who was killed in a horror hit-run in regional Victoria has broken down in court after the driver was jailed for just over two years.
Father-of-five Corey Sullivan was killed when he was hit by a car in Maffra, about 220 kilometres east of Melbourne, in 2023.
The 36-year-old was trying to retrieve his stolen car from Tyrone Mobourne when he was struck.
Today 26-year-old Mobourne was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
With time served, he could be out in four months.
“I feel really disappointed and let down by our legal system. I feel there’s no justice,” Sullivan’s sister Vanessa Robinson said.
“Today’s sentencing has left us blindsided and I don’t feel like there’s an end.”
A witness reported hearing heavy accelerating before the crash, but experts say the car was doing about 38km/h at the time of impact.
The prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mobourne was driving dangerously at the time, and that charge was dropped.
Mobourne admitted to lesser offences of theft and failing to stop and render help.
“What started out as a murder trial has gone to a nothing trial,” Robinson said.
“The system has been to the benefit of Tyrone and not to the benefit of Corey and Corey’s been on trial.”
The court heard that Mobourne has an IQ of 67 because of prolonged substance abuse, which Judge Pardeep Tiwana took into consideration because it was consistent with having a mild intellectual disability.
“Because there is nothing in this sentence which goes to the driving or the actual cause of death, cases such as this are very unsatisfactory for the victims,” Tiwana said.
“But the law can only punish the conduct the particular offence prohibits or makes criminal.”
Mobourne was on bail at the time of the fatal crash and has never held a licence.
The court heard he’s amassed 28 dishonesty charges since 2015 and has breached four community corrections orders.
Sullivan’s father, Brett Sullivan, said he was disappointed in the government’s lack of action to tighten bail laws.
“How the system has gone, it’s let my family down, it’s let my son down,” he said.
