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A woman convicted of killing a 24-year-old jogger while drink-driving will serve home detention 250m from the victim's family house.
Lynette Carol Wescott, 44, hit Brendan Dance after losing control of her Holden Commodore on a bend in Tuakau, south of Auckland, last October.
At Pukekohe District Court on Wednesday she was sentenced to 12 months' home detention - the maximum period - and banned from driving for three years after earlier pleading guilty to drink-driving causing death.
Judge John Adams gave her a reduced sentence because of her previously spotless record, guilty plea and need to care for her partner's 8-year-old special-needs child.
The sentence has "devastated" Dance's family, especially his mother Beverley Callander, 49.
The teacher aide has lost two husbands to heart attacks but told the court her eldest son's death was even more painful.
She has been prescribed medication for panic attacks, has problems sleeping because of nightmares and no longer lets her youngest son, 13-year-old Brad, walk down the road outside their house.
Callander told the court the situation gave her a daily dilemma on the way to work.
If she turned right from her driveway she had to pass the crash site, and if she turned left, she went past Wescott's house.
"I live in fear of coming across the defendant as she lives 250m from my driveway. I cannot get my head around how a middle-aged mother can drink and drive. What a waste of a talented, young life. I will never be able to share his life again."
In victim impact statements to the court, several members of Dance's family raised concerns about Wescott serving her sentence at home.
After the hearing his uncle, Brian Littlewood, said Wescott's sentence was "not fair. I'm stuck for words. She'll see her kids every day. It makes you feel empty".
Dance, a Waikato University business graduate, was just 200m from home when he was mown down last October 12. The Sky TV sports programming co-ordinator had developed a passion for running after losing 13kg and was training for the Auckland half-marathon.
The court heard that Wescott had drunk two glasses of wine that afternoon. She went to the Tuakau Hotel and drank another, and ordered a fourth glass she didn't finish.
At 7.45pm she drove home. The streetlights on the country road weren't working and Dance was not wearing reflective clothing. Judge Adams said Wescott didn't see him until she was very close, and over-reacted. "She braked hard and suddenly and lost control."
The car spun into a roadside barrier and hit Dance, throwing him down a 3m bank. "Mercifully, it seems he would have died instantly," Judge Adams said.
Wescott's lawyer, Gary Earley, said his client's blood alcohol reading was not "gross".
She was driving within the 100km/h speed limit but failed to heed a 65km/h advisory sign on the moderate bend.
Judge Adams accepted Wescott's evidence that she had tried to revive him before driving home and calling her partner. The pair returned to the scene but further first-aid efforts were fruitless.
Though not gross, the level of alcohol would have slowed Wescott's system but Judge Adams found she behaved responsibly.
Since the accident she had suffered from strong headaches, bad dreams and flashbacks.
"From the probation report it is quite plain that Ms Wescott will carry this responsibility with her forever," Judge Adams said. "The probation officer describes her as riddled with self-blame, guilt and turmoil."
Earley told the court his client was "distraught" and "grief-stricken" for her "mistake" and was prepared to meet Dance's family to apologise.
It's not the first case in which a victim's family has questioned geographical conditions laid down by a court.
The family of Augustine Borrell, the 17-year-old who died last September after being stabbed outside an Auckland party, were angered by a court's decision to bail the teen charged with his murder, Haiden Davis, to an address a few minutes' walk away.
