A Kalgoorlie man accused of the manslaughter of 14-year-old Elijah Doughty had his house burned down and his family moved from the state within days of the fatal crash, a jury deciding the case has been told.
The 56-year-old man, whose name is suppressed, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter for running over and killing Elijah, but guilty to the lesser charge of dangerous driving causing death.
At the supreme court in Perth on Wednesday, his lawyer, Seamus Rafferty, asked the lead detective on the case to confirm that his client’s house had been burned down.
“The house was actually burned down a couple of days after this incident,” Rafferty said.
“That’s correct,” Detective Natalie Davis replied.
“Have the people who did that been caught?” Rafferty said.
“No one has been charged,” Davis said.
The house was less than a kilometre from Gribble Creek reserve in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia, where Elijah was killed while riding a motorbike in an impact with a 4WD Nissan Navara, being driven by the accused man, just before 9am on 29 August 2016.
Rafferty also asked Davis to confirm that his client’s family had been moved from Western Australia “for their own safety”.
“His wife and two children were moved out of the state, yes,” she said.
Davis conducted the recorded interview with the accused man about seven hours after the crash, and also toured the site.
In the interview, previously played in court, she asked the man why he had given chase when he saw a person riding a cheap Chinese motorcycle that had been stolen from his house the night before, given that he said his purpose in going to the reserve that morning was to look for a Honda motorcycle that had been stolen at the same time.
The Honda had “sentimental value to my wife”, he said, and was worth about $5,000 when it was working, which it wasn’t on the night it was taken. He told Davis that one of the police officers who attended the break-in at his house said the reserve was a “dumping ground” and that if the Honda wasn’t running, that was probably where it would end up.
Davis then asked the man why he chased the cheap Chinese bike Elijah was riding instead of calling the police.
He had replied: “The bikes went missing together. The person might know where the Honda 50 was.”
He said his intention was to: “Get hold of that person, ring police.”
Davis told state prosecutor David Davidson that the Honda motorcycle the accused man was looking for was found by police that afternoon under bushes in Gribble Creek reserve, just a few metres from the point where Elijah was killed. Police don’t know if it was there when the crash occurred.
The video interview was the only time the accused man’s voice was heard in the courtroom after he pleaded not guilty. He declined to give evidence.
Crash investigator, Senior Constable Peter Price, told the court that the Nissan Navara was travelling at 67km/h in the metres leading up to the crash site, gaining on the motorcycle, which was travelling at 46km/h, at a rate of 5.6m per second.
That was close to top speed for the 70cc motorcycle, which the court earlier heard had a top speed of between 50 and 60km/h, compared with the Navara’s top speed of more than 150km/h.
The speeds were caught on CCTV cameras installed in a house on Clancy Street, Boulder, which backed on to the reserve.
“It’s apparent from the CCTV that … there’s distance between them and that distance is closing,” Price said.
Immediately before the point of impact, there is only one camera frame between the motorcycle and the Navara. That means the 4WD driven by the accused was only 0.04 seconds behind Elijah on the motorbike, Price said.
He said it was impossible to tell from the tyre marks at the point of impact whether the accused man’s car had struck the bike or whether, as the accused man told police, Elijah had veered in front of him and he had been unable to stop.
Price also said the speed limit in the reserve, which is criss-crossed by dirt tracks and used by pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike, was technically 110km/h.
“After travelling more than 100 metres from a residential premise or 100 metres from a street light then, without any signage or indication as to the speed limit … it would increase to the state default limit of 110km/h,” he said.
The point of impact was 158 metres past the end of the paved road at Clancy Street. Asked to confirm the speed limit by Rafferty, Price said it would have been 110km/h.
The trial continues.
