Killer driver breaks silence

28th April 2010

Killer drink-driver Phillip Hamilton has spoken for the first time about why he didn't stop to check to see if a cyclist he hit was still alive.

The 41-year-old says he was scared and was "probably trying to get away with it" when he drove away after hitting and killing Lincoln University student Jens Richardon in August last year.

"Well, I know how hard I hit him, and I don't think a horse could have survived," he told TV3's 60 Minutes, which screens tonight at 7.30pm.

It is the first time Hamilton has offered some sort of explanation about his appalling actions.

Hamilton is serving a 12 months home detention sentence in a Riccarton flat after being sentenced in February. Hamilton was also disqualified from driving for three years.

He pleaded guilty and has refused all media interviews about why he got into his car after drinking at least 10 pints of beer at The Rock Restaurant and Bar in Rolleston.

Hamilton stopped the car briefly after striking Mr Richardon, 34, on Springston Leeston Rd. However, he did not call emergency services and a passer-by found Mr Richardon's body in a grass verge. Hamilton's brother was a passenger in the car.

When it was remarked to Hamilton that the amount of alcohol he had consumed was well over the drink-driving limit, Hamilton responded: "That (10 pints) might sound a lot to you and quite a lot to the general population but ...

The public was outraged over the light home detention sentence handed down by Judge Philip Moran after Mr Richardon's widow Andrea Krueger hugged Hamilton in the dock in an act of forgiveness.

Many people said Hamilton should have been ordered to pay reparation to Ms Krueger.

Hamilton told 60 Minutes that he shouldn't be criticised for the sentence.

"If the public want to judge me, they should go to law school," he says. "I mean, I didn't sentence myself. Did they want me to stand up in the dock and say, 'Hang on mate...'?"

Asked how he would have felt if it had been his brother who was killed by a drink-driver, Hamilton said: "I don't think I would have been as forgiving as Andrea, that's for sure."

Ms Krueger has had a restorative justice meeting with Hamilton, but because of a confidentiality agreement, would not discuss it with The Star yesterday.

She told 60 Minutes she did not regret her act of forgiveness. "But one thing is the forgiveness or forgiving, and the other thing is to face what has happened and who did it," she says.

"I would like Phillip Hamilton and his brother and their families to stand up for what they did but also turn their life around. I think that's the thing they can give the world. To do something good," she said.

Yesterday, when The Star went to talk to Hamilton about his comments to 60 Minutes, he slammed the door in the reporter's face.

60 Minutes screens on TV3 tonight at 7.30pm.