Emily Wood, AAP
A mother-of-three was drunk and angry after her boyfriend assaulted her during an argument about their approaches to parenting when she flung him from a car, almost killing him.
Tara McConchie, 37, faced the County Court in Melbourne on Wednesday, March 8 where she avoided a jail sentence after pleading guilty to negligently causing injury to her then-partner in March 2021.
The couple of 10 years had been drinking all afternoon and into the evening at a Point Cook house party when they began arguing about their differing approaches to parenting and her boyfriend assaulted her.
She went outside to their four-wheel drive, which had her boyfriend’s jetski attached on a trailer, and drove off.
McConchie returned and then stopped on a suburban road near the party, where she tried to unhitch the trailer.
Her partner yelled at her and then jumped onto the 4WD, holding on to the roof rack. She revved the motor, but he stayed clinging to the car when she began accelerating.
She got up to 41km/h and then hit the brakes, flinging him off the vehicle and onto the road.
He suffered serious head injuries, including a brain haemorrhage, skull fractures and nerve damage, requiring surgery and rehabilitation.
“Driving at all with a blood alcohol level of 0.186 is highly dangerous and illegal,“ Judge Gerard Mullaly said.
“Serious injury if not death was inevitable.“
He handed McConchie a three-year community corrections order and ordered she undertake 300 hours of unpaid community work.
Judge Mullaly said his sentence took into account “the whole picture“ of the offending, including domestic violence and that the victim jumped on the car and remained there after she revved the engine.
“This is a merciful sentence to allow you to remain outside prison, but if you don’t do what’s required of you, you will go to prison almost inevitably,“ he said.
McConchie, who was supported in court by her new partner, was also disqualified from driving for two years.
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