In February 2016 a Chinese woman in New Zealand on a 12 month working visa with no driving experience (but who held a Chinese drivers licence that was valid in NZ) drove her car on the wrong side of the road and killed motorcyclist, Rhys Middleton. To her credit, Jieling Xiao (pictured wearing a cap emblazed with "Get Lucky") pleaded guilty to Dangerous Driving Causing Death and was (rather surprisingly by many)sentenced in June to 17 months imprisonment, as well as a 3 year driving ban and $10,000 in reparation to Mr Middleton's family. Xiao"s lawyer claimed the sentence was "Manifestly excessive", and on appeal her sentence was reduced instead to 9 months home detention and 150 hours community service, seen by some as an insult to the deceased, his family, and the road users of New Zealand who deserve protection from such incompetence. Lawyer Jefferson maintained that because Xiao held the legal qualification to drive in New Zealand, she should not be punished for what he claimed was an accident - in contrast the Crown maintained it was "An accident waiting to happen". Xiao was always going to be deported after serving her jail sentence, but bureaucracy kicked in, the Immigration people got involved, and rather than serving any further penalty she was due to be deported back to China today. This begs the question as to what the life of a motorcyclist is really worth? Mr Middleton's family (including his fiancé) are having real difficulty coming to terms with what they felt was an extremely light sentence in the first instance being reduced, then seeing the killer escape to from whence she came without serving further penalty. I wonder what the sentence would be if one was to recklessly kill a motorcyclist in China? Has Justice been done - no doubt that there are many who think not.? Comments are closed.
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Don MalcolmA perfect day involves being on my Harley with a long ride ahead.
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