KEY POINTS:
Michelle Davies stood before the former policeman who caused the crash that nearly killed her so she could look him in the eye at his sentencing yesterday.
The 38-year-old Auckland woman was asked by Judge Anne Kiernan to step back from the dock where Jason Peters sat in the Auckland District Court.
She was told to read her victim impact statement closer to the public gallery filled with supporters of both her and Peters.
Mrs Davies spent weeks in hospital after Peters crossed the centre line in his BMW near Maramarua on May 12, 2006, and crashed head-on into the car she, her husband, Greg, and their daughter, Gemma, were in.
Peters admitted three counts of careless driving causing injury and one count of driving with excess breath alcohol. He was sentenced to 12 months' home detention and disqualified from driving for two years.
Mrs Davies told the court life for her would never be the same as it was before the crash.
"I was previously a fit, agile woman but after the crash I have been sluggish, slow and clumsy. My life and that of my family is now very different."
She said each day she struggled to do things she once found easy.
Her memory of her wedding, held two weeks before the crash, was gone.
"My recollections of that special time have been ruined ... My heart breaks for my family."
Recovery from the crash had been slow. She was in constant pain, tired easily and had had to give up her once-successful interior-design business.
Her voice trembled as she told how her husband had developed post-traumatic stress syndrome. Doctors had told him he should tell their daughter (aged 6 at the time of the crash) her mother was going to die.
Mr Davies said his wife was his "soul buddy" and they had been living the "perfect life" before the crash.
At first he did not blame Peters but was now angry at his "total disregard" and "lack of responsibility".
Peters' lawyer, Paul Davison, QC, said his client's apology was sincere but legal reasons prevented its being made earlier.
Peters sent Mrs Davies a letter in April, almost two years after the crash.
Mr Davison said that when Peters left the crash scene he was injured and stunned. He fully accepted responsibility for what happened.
Judge Kiernan said she took into account Peters' guilty pleas, his offer of reparation and his letter of apology when she sentenced him to home detention. She also disqualified him from driving and ordered him to pay $29,000 reparation.
"What a joke," replied Mrs Davies.
Moments later, as the judge left the court following the sentencing, Mrs Davies yelled she was "absolutely appalled" at the home detention. To members of the Peters family supporting him on the other side of the public gallery, she said: "Shame on you."
Outside court, Mrs Davies said the sentence was "an absolute disgrace".
LIFE REDUCED IN EVERY WAY
Since the accident, Michelle Davies' life hasn't been the same.
She tires easily and never really "feels awake". If she doesn't have a sleep during the day it can leave her feeling weak for several days.
She can no longer play with her daughter on the trampoline - the car crash left her sluggish, slow and clumsy. Before the crash she was fit and agile.
Weeks of lying in a hospital bed in a coma was followed by months of rehabilitation. Her father, Robert Wells, remembers her eyes opening but not really seeing, and unintelligible speech.
She once said to him: "Dad, I know I've been speaking nonsense, you won't let me get away with it, will you?"
Perhaps worst of all, her memory has been severely affected.
Just two weeks before the crash she and her husband, Greg, were married, but she can remember little of the ceremony.
