NZ lawyer jailed for Perth road death

By BRUCE BUTLER

A New Zealand lawyer and company manager drank alcohol at a business lunch in New Zealand, had more drinks on a seven-hour flight from Auckland to Western Australia, then began a 270km drive which ended in the death of a 19-year-old woman.

He has jailed in Perth this week for two years, after admitting dangerous driving causing death and drink driving.

He was made eligible for parole and will serve eight months behind bars. He was also banned from driving for three years and was fined $500 for the drink-driving offence.

Through his lawyer, Dunedin-born father-of-three Craig Andrew Leishman, admitted he was drink-driving, tired and going too fast when his 4WD vehicle swerved out of control and ploughed into an oncoming car.

The Perth District Court was told 44-year-old Leishman, a lawyer of 18 years, had a previous drink-driving conviction in New Zealand in October 1988, when he was convicted of excess speed, failing to stop and drink driving. In 1984 he was fined $150 in a Lower Hutt court for careless driving.

The court heard Leishman had returned to New Zealand from Australia for five days on business, and to see his wife Helen and his three daughters, aged 19, 21 and 22. Leishman, who now manages a plantation timber company in Bridgetown, 270km south of Perth, had been living in Western Australia since July, just a few months before the accident.

Tamara Taylor, 19 - the same age as Leishman's youngest daughter - died instantly from serious head injuries when his vehicle collided with the car in which she was a rear-seat passenger. The accident happened on November 24 last year, after Leishman had arrived at Perth Airport.

He admitted drinking alcohol at the business lunch before having more drinks on the plane.

He had driven about 70km from Perth when the crash occurred. Travelling in a 110km/h zone, he failed to see a sign indicating a sharp bend and slammed into a smaller car coming from the other direction.

He was later breathalysed and had a blood-alcohol reading of 0.101 per cent.

Lawyer John Prior told the Perth District Court this week that Leishman had been a lawyer for 18 years, and was a partner in a New Zealand law firm before setting up his own law firm and moving into business consultancy.

Mr Prior said Leishman earned about $A80,000, but was in charge of a $A20 million project which had created jobs for more than 100 people in the South West of the state.

"He admitted having consumed a gin and tonic and a beer during a flight from Auckland to Perth that afternoon," said prosecutor Ian Jones.

Mr Prior said fatigue, as well as alcohol, were factors in the accident.

"The tragic mistake he made there is working a day then getting on a plane and deciding to drive three hours," Mr Prior told Chief Judge Kevin Hammond.

"He didn't eat on the plane flight from NZ to Perth and he obviously had too many drinks, as indicated by the 0.101 per cent reading.

"That, in itself, was an error of judgment on his behalf, to drive at a later stage."

Both of Ms Taylor's parents, Louise and Malcolm Taylor, read emotion-charged victim impact statements to the court. Mrs Taylor broke down in tears. "Part of me died with my child that night," Mrs Taylor said.