Angela O'Connor with a portrait of her daughter Alexia who was killed when the drunk driver of the car she was in crashed after fleeing police, then ran away.
Angela O'Connor with a portrait of her daughter Alexia who was killed when the drunk driver of the car she was in crashed after fleeing police, then ran away.
Angela O'Connor has finally got what she asked for – an apology from the drunk driver who killed her daughter.
In the High Court at Christchurch last Friday, Darrin Ray Stewart stood in the witness box and read an emotional apology letter to O'Connor and her family.
Stewart was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on charges of manslaughter, three charges of reckless driving causing injury, failing to stop or ascertain injury, and failing to stop for a police officer.
A tearful Stewart said: "It was disgusting of me what I did. I was not in a fit state to drive, the outcome was the worst that I can think of . . ."
Last week Star.kiwi revealed O'Connor was waiting for an apology from Stewart for her 18-year-old daughter, Alexia Noble's, death.
Noble was killed on November 16 when the car Stewart was driving while drunk and high crashed into a building at a school on Gloucester St. He fled before emergency services arrived.
While O'Connor says she accepts the apology, she will not forgive Stewart - and is not happy with the length of the jail term he received.
"I'm not happy with the sentencing but there is nothing we can do about that. When people are killed, people get off too lightly.
"You take a life, you should do life. These car crashes are not stopping, there was one again last night that came down our street," she said.
O'Connor said she and her family would have liked to see Stewart's sentence start at seven years imprisonment.
She said some of her family members, including Noble's twin brother Zackery, who was also involved in the crash, was taking the sentencing "really bad".
Previously O'Connor said she wasn't interested in engaging in a restorative justice meeting with Stewart. She is now considering it.
"Not right now, but you never know," she said.
Stewart was also disqualified from driving for five years.
Defence counsel Anselm Williams said Stewart had always expressed his sorrow and remorse, but there had been no opportunity to give his apology to the family until then.
"I think of ways that I could change what has happened, and it hurts me that I cannot bring her back. I did not do the right thing once the accident happened and I am sorry for this. Alexia and I were best buds at work and the memories we have are amazing.
"What hurts me the most is that she is gone. I really can't explain how sorry I am to you all," Stewart told the court.
