Brian Bell jailed for 4-and-a-half years for attempted murder after driving wife over cliff

Brian Bell appeared in the High Court at Palmerston North today for his sentencing. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson

A husband found guilty of attempting to murder his wife by driving them both over a cliff “snapped” after she told him their 30-year marriage was over.

“He tried to kill me,” Megan Peterson told her daughter after she’d crawled up a muddy bank in the dark near where Brian Bell minutes earlier drove them over the cliff.

“If there’s no you, there’s no me,” Peterson told the jury at Bell’s trial in the Palmerston North High Court earlier this year.

Peterson’s evidence was that Bell uttered those words before intentionally accelerating through a sharp bend toward a fence, plunging their car over a steep bank and into a tree-lined gully on June 9 last year.

The jury of seven women and five men took 12 hours to reach their unanimous guilty verdict after the five-day trial in March.

Today, Bell was sentenced in the same court to four years and six months in prison for attempting to murder Peterson.

Justice Helen McQueen noted Bell still denied his wife’s account of the crash and accepted the Crown’s position it wasn’t pre-mediated but instead a situation where Bell simply “snapped”.

“You used the car as a weapon, though not in a traditional sense,” she said.

“I am satisfied that you tried to kill Ms Peterson by driving over the cliff.”

Justice McQueen said she was concerned about the lack of remorse Bell had shown and said he instead seemed remorseful for the effects of his offending but not the actual incident itself.

However, she awarded discounts for his previously unblemished criminal record, his good character and his stressed mental state at the time of the offending due to the breakdown of his marriage.

Bell’s lawyer Steve Winter earlier told the court there was no need to give him an excessive sentence as a deterrent because Bell had never been before the court and was at low risk of reoffending.

He said neither Bell’s two children nor his wife, would be any better served by a lengthy sentence.

“He has had a short, sharp and nasty reminder of the consequences already,” Winter said.

“The people hurt most are the centre of his universe.”

Winter said his client maintained he doesn’t remember the events leading up to the crash, but didn’t deny it happened.

The Crown objected to a letter Bell penned in prison being read in court on the basis that he still denied the offending, however Winter read a small excerpt.

“To this day I struggle to accept that I would mean to hurt Megan or the children,” Bell wrote.

Crown prosecutor Deborah Davies told the court that Peterson was in a vulnerable state as she couldn’t get out of the car.

The pair were driving home from Wellington after Peterson had returned from a holiday in Australia when the argument unfolded near their rural home.

Brian Bell was found guilty of attempted murder in March this year. Photo / Google Earth

After the crash, Peterson crawled through the vehicle’s smashed windshield and climbed up the bank, taking off her smartwatch and zipping up her sweatshirt so Bell wouldn’t be able to see her in the dark.

She made it to the roadside and to a neighbouring property, where she told her daughter, who’d been in a car not far behind her parents, what happened.

The occupant of the house where the pair sought refuge called police.

Bell, who also climbed out of the wreckage and up the gully, went to the neighbour’s pleading for help to find his wife.

When police arrived they arrested Bell for dangerous driving, but the next day after interviewing him the charges were upgraded to attempted murder.

Davies told the court while Bell was under significant mental distress at the time of the incident, he had not shown any remorse.

“He’s not remorseful for what he’s done to Ms Peterson and the impacts on her and what she went through that night,” she said. “He still denies the offending.”

Peterson was absent from the sentencing but her victim impact statement was read to the court.

She said a year on she still suffered nightmares from the crash.

She said leaves or branches brushing against her face could bring on panic attacks, or the sound of running water would remind her of the sound of the creek at the bottom of the gully.

“It’s been almost a year since he tried to kill me and I’m still suffering,” she said.

“I dream about the fence wire making a pinging noise as it breaks.”

Peterson said her husband still hadn’t owned what he’d done that night.

“I can’t forgive him until he’s taken responsibility for what he’s done … I don’t know if he’ll ever do that.”

Data extracted from the wrecked car showed the brake pedal wasn’t used at all in the five seconds before the crash and the accelerator pedal was fully depressed.

Much of the trial focused on Bell’s past, with family members describing him as having a quick temper as well as being controlling of his wife in particular.

Peterson went on holiday before the crash to have a break and think about whether she wanted to continue the marriage.

After collecting his wife from Wellington Airport, Bell interrogated her on the two-hour drive home about the state of their marriage, saying he wanted a second chance, which Peterson wouldn’t give him.

Just before the crash, she told him she had feelings for another man.

In an interview with police the next day, Bell told them he must have fallen asleep because he couldn’t remember the crash or the immediate events before it.

But Davies told the jury at trial that Bell had simply “snapped” and decided to kill his wife.

“He said he couldn’t live without her and then he put those words into effect.”

Davies said Bell’s defence of falling asleep prior to the crash didn’t add up because the couple had been arguing about their marriage for almost the entire car ride.

“You can’t be in the middle of a conversation about one of the most important things in your life - your marriage - and just fall asleep.”