The woman convicted of killing two young Sunshine Coast shopkeepers has sobbed in court as powerful victim impact statements were read at her sentencing hearing on Tuesday, and the mother of one recalled how she lost her last breath of your child for minutes.
Kelly Renee Liddicoat, 44, was sentenced in Maroochydore District Court on Tuesday afternoon to six and a half years in prison.
He will be eligible for parole on April 15, 2026. The 181 days he spent in custody were declared time served.
Liddicoat had been found guilty of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance in Maroochydore District Court on October 18, 2023, which led to her hitting and killing Lleyton Bartlett, 22 years old, from Baringa, and Aaron, from Currimundi. Pitt, 25 years old, with a white BMW.
At the time, on April 21, 2022, the duo were performing a good Samaritan act by repairing a broken down bus on Nambour Connection Rd in Woombye on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Aaron Pitt, 25, from Currimundi, died after being hit by Liddicoat’s white BMW while repairing a bus.
Judge Williamson told Liddicoat that his ability to drive had been affected by the “cocktail” of prescription drugs he had taken and had been warned about.
“You should have stopped driving, but you didn’t,” he said.
Crown prosecutor Rebecca Marks read three victim impact statements written by the families of Bartlett and Pitt at the sentencing hearing.
In the first statement read by Mrs Marks from Mr and Mrs Bartlett, the grieving parents wrote of “the pure joy” their son had brought to their lives and how they “miss him terribly”.
They wrote that Mr. Bartlett had “his entire life ahead of him and his death has impacted” every aspect “of their lives.”
Lleyton Bartlett, 22, from Baringa, died after being hit by Liddicoat’s white BMW
In the heartbreaking statement, Mrs Bartlett tragically recalled the day her son died, writing: “After seeing it with my own eyes, I was devastated. I missed his last breath by only four minutes.
“There are no words that can describe the depth of my despair at that moment,” he wrote.
Mrs. Bartlett wrote that Mr. Bartlett’s brother had “lost his anchor” and that he had admired his brother.
She revealed that the family had left the Sunshine Coast and that she is struggling to navigate her world “without Lleyton in it”.
Mrs Bartlett wrote how much she misses her son and how “the nightmares never seem to go away”.
Liddicoat was sentenced on Tuesday in Maroochydore District Court on one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance.
He concluded by writing: “Every morning I wake up and think, ‘I’m one step closer to seeing him.’ We miss him so much.”
Crown prosecutor Rebecca Marks then read a victim impact statement written by Ms Pitt, Mr Pitt’s mother, who wrote: “We began our life sentence the day Aaron died.”
Mrs Pitt said her son had been “very much enjoying life” and went on to recount the horrific moment she was informed of her son’s death.
“The doctor came into the room, sat down with us and proceeded to tell us that they did everything they could to save Aaron, but in the end, due to the severity of his injuries, he died.
The only thing I could hear was my husband’s anguished cry. I felt totally numb,” she wrote.
The impact statement revealed how Mrs Pitt and her husband were “scarred forever” after seeing their son in hospital and how she is turned on by the sight of men in high visibility clothing, the sound of sirens and CDC buses.
He concluded by writing, “Our children are victims who no longer have a voice,” and asked the court to consider the maximum sentence for Liddicoat.
The final victim impact statement read to the court by Ms Marks was written by Mr Pitt. He recalled telling his family about the death of his son.
“She could barely speak and I remember her screams of terror,” he wrote.
He wrote about his final moments with his son in the hospital: “I couldn’t leave the hospital without seeing and hugging my son,” and how this vision of him haunts him every night and every morning.
The Crown prosecutor choked on these words as she read them to the court.
Pitt wrote how his son had recently started dating a woman just before he was murdered.
She worked at Sunshine Coast University Hospital in the emergency resuscitation unit and had tragically seen Mr Pitt being rushed to hospital.
Writing that he is “devastated” to not have his son around and that he is now “not the same person” without his son, he also called for the maximum sentence for Liddicoat.
“No sentence can ever ease our pain,” he wrote. “The defendant made the decision for her and now we have to face the consequences.”