Santosh and Pratima Thapa Adhikari were on their way home from night shifts when a speeding BMW came out of nowhere.
Driver Oudom Doeun repeatedly ignored his passenger’s pleas to stop, as he accelerated over 200km/h towards the Caulfield South intersection where the couple had paused on the evening of May 15, 2023.
“There’s a red light, stop!” his friend warned.
He kept yelling “red light, red light” but Doeun continued speeding, only applying the brakes half a second before the crash.
Mr Adhikari, 32, had finished work before his wife Pratima, 22, and waited around to take her home but neither would get there.
Instead, the force of the impact caused their Honda to roll multiple times and both were instantly killed.
County Court Judge Jeanette Morrish said the traffic light had turned red about six seconds before the BMW entered the intersection and no mechanical fault contributed to the collision.
She jailed Doeun for at least eight years on Friday.
“Your driving was the sole cause of their deaths,” she told Doeun in court, as she handed down her sentence.
“You put your foot to the floor, full throttle.”
The BMW was travelling 190km/h five seconds before the crash and 213km/h one second before, on a stretch of road where the speed limit is 70km/h.
In a statement to the court, Mr Adhikari’s cousin Puskal Bhusal said the couple’s families in Nepal had become isolated and Mrs Adhikari’s mother cried daily until passing out.
Their family and friends sat besides Doeun’s supporters in a packed Melbourne courtroom on Friday, as the 25-year-old was handed a maximum sentence of 12 years and nine months behind bars.
The nursing student had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of culpable driving causing death and one of recklessly causing injury.
Doeun had dinner and shared a bottle of red wine with two others in the lead-up to the crash.
He had a blood alcohol reading of 0.016 and did not have an Australian driver’s licence at the time.
The 25-year-old was on bail after the collision and has not driven or returned to paid work since, instead becoming a full-time volunteer at an aged-care facility.
He had never been in custody before and has since been living with depression, anxiety and PTSD.
Judge Morrish found Doeun had little risk of reoffending and accepted he was remorseful for his crimes.
“Your reckless conduct was confined to a very short period of time,” she said.
The court heard Doeun had attended a prestigious international school in Cambodia and moved to Australia aged 16 before finishing secondary school here.
After serving his sentence he will likely be deported back to Cambodia.
