Jailed sports rep dies in crash

Prasant Nathoo died in a car crash.

Hockey player was trying to get his life together after prison term.

A man killed in a car crash on Friday was a former representative sportsman trying to turn his life around after being jailed for and beating a prostitute with a hockey stick and running a woman down in his car as he fled.

In 2010, Prasant Nathoo was sentenced to three years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to six charges in relation to attacking the prostitute and nearly severing a woman's leg with his car on Ponsonby Rd. That woman, Lynette Kilmartin, suffered terrible injuries and was found dead a year later.

Nathoo died on Friday morning after a car he was travelling in collided with a truck on State Highway 16 in Helensville. The crash, which left debris strewn across the road, closed the highway for several hours.

Nathoo joined the Hibiscus Dairy Flat Hockey Club upon his release from jail and had been with them for the past three seasons.

Club president Roger Taylor said the club had been aware of his history.

"He'd done the time and he was looking to get back into hockey and we said, 'Well, we'll give you a second chance to get involved'.

"Any sporting activity I think is a positive influence on people's lives and he certainly was trying over the last couple of years to get back on a more even keel in life."

Lynette Kilmartin

He said Nathoo was a well-liked member of the club's top men's team. "In terms of the interactions he had with his team mates and other people in the club, he was very well thought of."

His team mates would now wear black arm bands out of respect.

During his sentencing five years ago, the Auckland District Court was told that Nathoo had stopped and picked up a prostitute in Auckland.

He drove to a secluded place and took off his clothes but the sex worker felt uncomfortable with his "forceful" behaviour and asked to get out. He then reached into his back seat and pulled out his hockey stick. The woman ran and Nathoo chased her with his stick, hitting her several times in the head.

Nathoo then drove up to Ponsonby Rd.

He had been drinking and later told police that he had a flat tyre after hitting what he thought to be a rubbish bin.

But Nathoo had instead hit Lynette Kilmartin, nearly severing her leg.

Kilmartin, a bodybuilder in peak physical condition, was left disabled and required medical attention at least three times a week. She had just moved to Auckland for a new job had been out for a night celebrating with friends.

She had just got out of a taxi on Ponsonby Rd when she was hit by Nathoo's car. Later that year Kilmartin, 37, was found dead.

A friend said that Kilmartin was left "broken" physically and emotionally.