A 24-year-old farmer has been sentenced to a four-year jail term after pleading guilty to dangerous driving which caused the death of 35-year-old Katie Broadbent, who was camping with a group of friends at the Got Milk music festival in Rochester on Australia Day earlier this year.
As The Age reports, John Forbes of Westmere, west of Ballarat, will spend at least two years behind bars for backing his over his best mate’s girlfriend while drunk and on drugs at the Victorian festival, in the early hours of 26th January.
Forbes, a country footballer and CFA volunteer who was running the family farm for his sick father, was arrested and found to have taken ecstasy with an estimated blood-alcohol concentration of between 0.201 and 0.206 — more than three times the legal limit — when he ran over Ms. Broadbent.
Festival-goers reportedly recalled seeing the wheels of Forbes’ vehicle spinning and hearing the engine rev, though Forbes had no memory of the event or why he started the car and put it in reverse. Ms. Broadbent’s boyfriend discovered her body later that morning.
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As he handed down the sentence, Judge John Smallwood said he hoped Forbes’ punishment would serve as a deterrent to other revellers. “If jailing you saves even one life, through general deterrence, I think that’s something the community would say they wanted,” he said.
Judge Smallwood called the incident “every parent’s nightmare” for both families, praising the courage and dignity of Broadbent’s parents, aunt, uncle, and grandmother throughout the court process, and noting Forbes’ remorse and the support of his family, 50 of whom turned out to court on Friday.
The judge said he had been given an “impossible” task in sentencing over the death of a totally innocent victim and a young man who was heavily intoxicated at the time, but was otherwise a valuable member of his rural community.
According to Nine News, Judge Smallwood added that Forbes should have been aware of the risks of driving while intoxicated as had been earlier been convicted of a minor drink driving offence.
Outside of court, The Age reports, Ms. Broadbent’s family called for the coroner to investigate sleeping arrangements at music festivals in the hopes of preventing a similar death from occurring again.
