Driver in deadly Melbourne car rampage that killed six, including infant, jailed for life
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CANBERRA (DPA. AFP) - An Australian man who killed six people and injured 27 others when he deliberately drove his car into pedestrians on a busy Melbourne street in 2017 has been sentenced to life in prison, local media reported.
Known as the Bourke Street killer, James Gargasoulas was on Friday (Feb 22) sentenced to spend at least 46 years in jail for committing what Justice Mark Weinberg described as one of Australia's "worst examples of mass murder".
A jury in November found him guilty of the murder of six people, including a three-month-old baby and a 10-year-old girl, as well as trying to kill another 27 pedestrians.
The 29-year-old remained emotionless on Friday in Victoria's Supreme Court as the judge gave the verdict, according to Australian Associated Press.
Gargasoulas was handed life sentences for the six counts of murder.
Witnesses described "bodies flying through the air" and people running out of the path of the speeding vehicle.
Despite being in a "drug-induced psychosis" under the effects of methamphetamine, Judge Mark Weinberg said he was fully aware of his actions on the day of the killings.
"This was one of the worst examples of mass murder in Australian history," he said.
During the trial, the killer apologised "from the heart".
"But that's not going to fix anything if I say sorry. Neither will a lengthy sentence fix what I've done," he said.
However, Weinberg found Gargasoulas was not "genuinely remorseful" for his crimes, adding that it was "enormously fortuitous" he did not kill more people.
"You were also well aware of the likelihood that by driving through the crowds in the way that you did, you would kill, or at least seriously injure, those that you struck," he said.
"You left a trail of destruction behind you."
