Murderous driver who hit four kids while drunk and high fails in final bid to reduce jail sentence
- Driver who killed four Sydney children will not be released early
- Samuel William Davidson appealed a reduced sentence
The drunk and drugged driver who killed four children walking down a Sydney lane to buy ice creams has failed in his final bid to reduce his sentence.
The High Court on Friday refused special leave to hear Samuel William Davidson’s appeal that he had been subjected to an unfair amount of prison time due to misuse of sentencing principles.
Davidson was driving erratically and at high speed when he struck Veronique Sakr, 11, and her cousins, Sienna Abdallah, eight, and her siblings Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13.
The professional trucker crashed into them after his ute ran over a curb in Oatlands, north-west Sydney, on February 1, 2020.
Pictured left to right: Sienna Abdallah, eight, Veronique Sakr, 11, Antony Abdallah, 13, and Angelina Abdallah, 12, were killed by drug and drink driver Samuel Davidson in 2020
Samuel Davidson was initially jailed in April 2021 for 28 years with a non-parole period of 21 years (Davidson’s arrest following the crash pictured)
Stephen Odgers SC, representing Davidson, said Davidson had previous good character, and that the offense led to his first time in custody.
This meant that he had a good chance of being rehabilitated.
He said the way parole and non-parole periods were determined in relation to the length of a sentence meant that people with the best chances of rehabilitation were worse off.
“It is very strange that a person with good prospects is worse off than a person with bad prospects,” the lawyer told the court.
“But in NSW, good prospects for rehabilitation work against you.”
Odgers added that if the case were to be heard, the defense would raise the issue of Davidson’s ADHD, but conceded that was not a basis on which the appeal should be granted.
Davidson was resentenced to 20 years with 15 years without parole after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeals found his original sentence was grossly excessive.
He was initially jailed in April 2021 for 28 years with a non-parole period of 21 years.
Davidson had pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter and charges related to injuring three other children in the crash.
Samuel William Davidson failed in his final attempt to reduce his sentence after killing three members of the Abdallah family (above) and his cousin
Crown prosecutor Helen Robertson SC said the differences in the two judgments “did not demonstrate fundamentally different principles” nor did they raise an issue for the law applied in New South Wales.
“There is no correct sentence,” he said.
“It depends on the discretion of the sentencing judge.”
Robertson noted that most sentences were reduced in lower courts due to special circumstances, but acknowledged that Odgers was referring to long sentences.
In her reasoning for the denial, Chief Justice Susan Kiefel said the appeal was likely to be unsuccessful.
