His lawyer, Josh Friend, described the driving as “horrendous” and “quite honestly, very dangerous.”

Crown prosecutor Daniel Baxter described Kelly during sentencing in the Nelson District Court as “the aggressor in the vehicle and the aggressor in his home.”

On the afternoon of June 16 last year, Kelly was driving on State Highway 7, in Lewis Pass, in a narrow, winding area with a speed limit of 80 km/h.

He was seen following another car, overtaking others on blind bends, crossing the center line and almost losing control on the gravel shoulder.

At one point he got out of the car to urinate, but once back in the car he caught up with traffic he had passed earlier at speeds of up to 140 km/h.

He again overtook blind curves, followed him and turned to the other side of the road. He then passed a large truck, not knowing if oncoming traffic was coming.

About half an hour later he collided with the driver of the smaller vehicle, traveling in the same direction, who was ejected by the impact and left with multiple serious injuries, including a broken neck and back.

emergency services They had to carry out a delicate extraction from the area along a slope where the driver was thrown.

Kelly’s car also went off the road and rolled down the slope. He managed to get back onto the road where he verbally abused people who had stopped to help.

They took him to the hospital, but he refused to give a blood sample and told the police to fuck off.

The driver of the other vehicle was taken by rescue helicopter to the hospital.

The next day, Kelly refused to speak to police and told them to “figure it out for themselves.”

Judge Jo Rielly said it would have been good for the court to know more to recognize the injured driver, but there was no information.

Kelly was sentenced to a total of 17 months in prison for two sets of charges at separate times last year, arising from dangerous driving and then, on December 13 last year, charges arising from assaulting his partner.

the assault

Earlier that night, Kelly and her partner were at a social sporting event when a minor altercation began while they were driving home and they hit each other.

Kelly then elbowed her partner in the face and chest, and then punched him in the face when they got home and an argument broke out about what had happened earlier in the car.

The woman was scared enough to leave the house and hide, but she returned to pick up things. Police arrived to find Kelly pushing her toward the door and screaming.

He then shouted insults at the police and, while being arrested, began banging his head on the patrol car window.

When one of the officers approached to arrest him, Kelly bit him on the arm, piercing the skin.

Baxter described the assault as on the high end because it involved biting a police officer who had tried to prevent Kelly from hurting himself.

The officer was taken to the hospital where he was treated for his wound.

Once at the police station, Kelly violently resisted while in the charging room and kicked another officer in the back of the leg.

Judge Rielly noted that Kelly “was no stranger to the process of justice,” and although his behavior behind the wheel was “very serious,” it was clear that the most serious crime was assault on a person in a family relationship, for whom a a protective order. was in effect and therefore violated that order.

For charges of assault on a person in a domestic relationship, breach of a protective order and assault on a police officer, Judge Rielly set a starting point of 15 months in prison.

After elevations and credits, the result was 14 months in prison for the set of charges linked to the attacks.

On the dangerous driving charge, he was sentenced to a maximum of three months in prison, to be served cumulatively.

He was given a one-month increase on the charge of refusing blood, and then credit for his guilty plea, back to the three-month maximum.

“The sentence is one that some might consider wholly inadequate, but the maximum (sentence) is what it is,” Judge Rielly said.

The final sentence was 17 months in prison. Kelly was denied permission to apply for home detention due to a previous breach while on bail, and was disqualified from driving indefinitely.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and covered general news including courts and local government for the Nelson Mail.