The families of 10 wedding guests killed in a bus crash say they feel “betrayed” after learning that manslaughter charges against them will reportedly be dropped as part of a plea deal.
Brett Button, 59, is expected to plead guilty to multiple misdemeanor charges of dangerous driving causing death following the crash, which saw his coach overturn on a roundabout at a wedding near Greta in New Wales’ Hunter Valley. South on June 11 of last year.
The deal, which reportedly came after weeks of negotiations between Button’s lawyers and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), will see 10 charges of manslaughter dropped when he faces Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday.
The PDP remained silent on the news on Tuesday, saying the matter was still before the court.
Bus driver Brett Button will face Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday over the fatal crash.
Matt Mullen, the father of Rebecca Mullen, who died in the crash, asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to proceed with the original manslaughter charges, which were included in 89 charges Button would face.
“I begged them, we’re still waiting on the process hoping they’ll reconsider,” Mr. Mullen said. Seven news.
“It’s a tattoo on our heart that we’re going to have to carry for the rest of our lives forever.”
His wife Leanne said the news of the reduced charges, which the families were told just 36 hours before Button’s hearing, had been devastating.
“As a mother, being able to hug her while she was still warm, hold her hand, kiss her on the forehead and tell her the things I needed to say that were denied to me because it was a crime scene,” she said.
“But now it seems to me that those sacrifices I made as a mother were not respected.”
Montana Bray, whose brother Zach Bray, 30, died in the crash, said the news hit her hard.
“I feel disrespected and I feel like they’re trying to do things quickly and quietly,” he said.
“The 10 people who died on that bus deserve more than this.”
Leanne and Matt Mullen, parents of bus crash victim Rebecca Mullen, say fee reduction is a ‘betrayal’
Ten wedding guests died in the accident. Among them were Rebecca Mullen, Zach Bray Angus Craig, Tori Cowburn, Nadene and Kyah McBride, Kane Symons, Andrew and Lynan Scott and Darcy Bulman.
Victim support service advocate Howard Brown called the decision “cowardly.”
He said it was the “easy way out of negotiating a lesser charge that does not reflect the seriousness of the matter.”
In a statement read by his lawyer Chris O’Brien outside court in March, Button said “not a day goes by that I don’t think about what happened that night.”
“Not an hour goes by that I don’t think about the families who have been affected by the accident,” he said at the time.
‘I am truly sorry for everyone involved, including the emergency services.
“I am devastated by what has happened and I am truly deeply sorry.”
The other bus crash victims were Angus Craig, Tori Cowburn, Nadene and Kyah McBride, Kane Symons, Andrew and Lynan Scott and Darcy Bulman.
Next month will mark one year since the tragedy.
A bus full of wedding guests was returning to Singleton late on June 11 last year when it crashed.
