Reduced sentence appals family

By Rebecca Fraser
A HAMPTON Park woman claims her family has been given a life sentence while the drunk driver who killed her sister and another young man has had his prison sentence reduced.
Kellie Sprie said her family was disgusted that serial drink driver John Ioane of Hallam had been given a lighter prison term after the Victorian Court of Appeal ruled last week that not enough weight was given to his guilty plea and feelings of remorse.
Mr Ioane, a learner driver, drank nine pints of beer before driving through a red light at 140 km/h on 3 July, 2004.
He had a blood alcohol reading of .202 at the time and waved and tooted his horn at police before hitting another vehicle on the Princes Highway in Dandenong.
The collision claimed the lives of Ms Sprie’s 21-year-old sister Cassandra and Michael Sheridan, also 21.
Two other passengers were also seriously injured.
Mr Ioane had 13 prior convictions before the collision, including two prior convictions for exceeding the blood alcohol limit, two for careless driving, two for exceeding the speed limit and one for theft of a motor car.
The 27-year-old father of three was due in court five days after the deadly collision to face other driving offences including driving while suspended and not wearing a seat belt.
Last June, after pleading guilty to the various charges, Ioane was jailed for 13 years with a minimum of 10 in the County Court of Victoria .
However, last Thursday the Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Marilyn Warren and justices Stephen Charles and Alex Chernov overturned this sentence and imposed a new prison term of 12 years with a minimum of nine. In re-sentencing Mr Ioane, the Court of Appeal said the case involved one of the worst examples of culpable driving and related offences to come before the Victorian courts.
Ms Sprie, 20, said her family was appalled that Mr Ioane’s sentence had been reduced.
She said her family still believed that he should have received a life sentence in light of his drink driving record.
“He should be in prison for life for doing such a horrific thing to the families and people who are left behind,” she said.
The Sprie family has attended every court hearing since Ioane was charged but could not bear to attend the latest.
Instead, close friends went to hear the verdict.
“We could not bear to hear the outcome,” Ms Sprie said.
“He should not be given a second chance because the Sprie family has been given a life sentence.
“We feel imprisoned in our grief and people don’t understand what we have been left with.
“It is just ongoing and plays on our minds every day.
“How many chances must he get in life?
“What is 12 or nine years out of his life when we have been left to deal with this?”
Ms Sprie said she was also disgusted after she recently placed a cross at the collision site to mark Cassandra’s birthday on 3 April.
The cross was stolen and returned four days later after being broken into pieces and strewn across grass near the freeway.
“Some people have no conscience,” she said.