A former VFL player has been sentenced over a drunken crash that killed his partner and left a young woman with permanent injuries.
Raymond Card, 68, was handed a nine-year sentence with a non-parole period of four years in Geelong Magistrates’ Court today over the November 2024 crash that claimed the life of his partner Mandy McDonald.
The court heard the former Geelong footballer was four times the legal blood alcohol limit when he got behind the wheel and drove on the wrong side of the Geelong Ring Road in Lara, crashing head-on with a BMW on November 16, 2024.
The accident left a 19-year-old woman with serious injuries.
A promising volleyball player, she can no longer play due to the chronic pain and nerve damage caused by the crash.
“It’s still a long road to follow. To get over the trauma it caused her is the biggest issue I think,” the woman’s father, Peter Macleod, said outside court today.
“She’s quite young and she’ll have this for a lifetime. At 20, that’s a hard pill to swallow,” mum Jenny said.
Despite causing the grandmother’s death, McDonald’s family stood by the 1983 Geelong best and fairest player, wiping away tears in court.
The young woman’s parents have slammed the sentence.
“I’m a little bit disappointed. The sentence was quite light, it was a very serious offence,” Macleod said.
“I think it’s time a stronger message was sent.”
In sentencing, Judge Gerard Mullaly took into account Card’s letter of apology to the young woman.
“The time I spend in jail will not compare to your life now, and the loss of the love of my life,” Card wrote.
“I wish it had been me instead.”
Body-worn camera footage from the scene showed Card admitting to drinking before he got behind the wheel.
“It’s my fault, I’m pissed. I thought I was alright,” he said.
Since the crash Card has been diagnosed with a rare terminal heart condition and has been given five years to live.
He played for the Geelong Cats between 1977 and 1987.
