The mother of a teenager killed in a car crash told the driver: "I hate you and I'll never forgive you for what you have done." 

The driver Cory Neville Aberhart, 19, had originally claimed the crash happened when he swerved on a Banks Peninsula road to avoid an oncoming car. Months later, he admitted the cause was him losing control when he was speeding through a turn. 

Aberhart had admitted a charge of careless driving causing the death of his best friend Dylan Bruce Taylor-McCutchan, a passenger in the vehicle. 

Bitterness about Aberhart's behaviour after the crash near Rapaki Bay emerged at a Christchurch District Court hearing when Aberhart faced either sentencing, or a discharge without conviction. 

Taylor-McCutchan's mother, Lynda Dinsdale, told the court she was angry about the "cowardice" displayed by Aberhart after the crash by telling lies about what had happened, to the police, family, and friends. 

She said she would never forgive him, saying he had attended the blessing and funeral for Taylor-McCutchan while knowing the truth about what had happened. 

"While we were paying for Dylan's funeral, you bought another car like the one you killed him in," she said. 

Taylor-McCutchan's stepmother, Melissa McCutchan, also referred to Aberhart being comforted by the family "when you knew you were at fault and lied to our faces". 

The hearing was told that Aberhart had also driven the victim's brother to the cemetery, in his new car, in breach of his restricted licence. There was a feeling that he had learnt nothing from the crash. 

Aberhart was driving in breach of his restricted licence when he returned to Christchurch from his work with the army, and took his best friend for the fatal drive in his new BMW car. 

They went over Dyers Pass Rd, and then turned left at Governors Bay. Near Rapaki, Aberhart was driving at 80km/h, in a 60km/h area, when he sped into a corner, cut the corner, and lost control. The car flipped and crashed down a bank, and Taylor-McCutchan received injuries – including head injuries – from which he died 10 minutes later. 

Defence counsel Helen Coutts urged that a discharge without conviction be granted, because the consequences of the conviction would be out of proportion to the gravity of the offence, in terms of employment, the ability to travel, and mental health. 

The police opposed the discharge, and Judge Mark Callaghan rejected it, saying the offending warranted condemnation. "An accident of this kind is avoidable and there is a lesson here for other young people who drive on the roads." 

He convicted Aberhart and disqualified him from driving for six months. Aberhart was young and unable to make a reasonable emotional harm payment to the family, but Judge Callaghan ordered that he make a $750 donation to a programme that gave treatment and counselling to young at-risk drivers and offenders. 

After the sentencing, Lynda Dinsdale said she did not believe the sentence was adequate – it should have carried a longer disqualification period. 

- by David Clarkson, Open Justice