A young dad who was streaming Netflix when his truck swerved and fatally hit a schoolteacher two weeks before her wedding has been sentenced to jail.
Bailey Camilleri caused 28-year-old Gemma Thompson’s death due to being distracted by an episode of The Big Bang Theory playing on his phone in November 2021, Judge Sophia Beckett ruled in June.
The 22-year-old earlier pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death over the crash in the northwest Sydney suburb of Llandillo.
Penrith District Court heard a Cellebrite phone report found Camilleri connected his phone to his Bluetooth outlet before leaving work on the morning of the crash.
It revealed his phone was unlocked with The Big Bang Theory streaming in the 11 minutes before the impact which instantly killed Ms Thomson at 7.27am.
Despite pleading guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death, his defence team argued his dangerous driving was caused by fatigue as opposed to distraction by his phone.
But Judge Beckett ruled that was not the case and his Netflix streaming was the main cause.
In an emotional victim impact statement, Ms Thompson’s fiance shared how he was driving near the crash site on the morning of his partner’s death.
“I was directed onto a detour around the section of road that was now being closed off,” he told the court.
“I noticed the number of police cars and I thought to myself, ‘that that must have been a serious incident’.”
When police told him who had been killed, he said his life was instantly ripped out from beneath.
“I reflected on the past weeks spent planning our wedding,” he told the court.
“We’d been practising our first dance in the home we just purchased. We were both sure that this was not just one of the greatest chapters of our lives, but the start of something bright and everlasting”.
“I don’t have the words to do Gemma justice”.
Ms Thompson’s sister, Claire, recalled the pain of packing up her little sister’s wedding dress after her death.
“She was truly overjoyed to be marrying the love of her life,” she said.
“She had been to dress fittings and chosen flowers and shoes and earrings. She’d written her vows. She’d made her seating plan and a playlist … One of the biggest sources of our suffering is knowing that she was robbed of this day”.
Claire was several months pregnant when she lost her sister. She cried so often that she was concerned her grief would impact her baby’s health.
“Three months after my daughter was born, I was diagnosed with post-partum anxiety,” Claire told the court.
“I felt so alone so much of the time, and so desperately sad”.
Ms Thomson’s mum, Jocelyn, told the court she lives “in a cloud of sadness”.
“I miss (Gemma’s) inclusive nature, her love of people, her empathy,” she said, recalling how Ms Thomson paid for the visa of her best friend’s fiance so he could move to Australia.
“We were so proud of what she had done in putting the needs of others before her own,” she said.
“I miss that softness that was so much a part of Gemma‘s personality”.
Gemma’s dad, Christopher, told the court the thought of Gemma’s death was like looking straight at the sun.
“It is such a painful thought and memory that I can only do it for a very short time before I have to look away and try and think of something else,” he said.
“There was no natural order to it. No logic. No rhyme or reason, other than Gemma was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And that five seconds either way, would have saved her life.”
Ms Thompson was a science teacher at Bede Polding College in South Windsor when she was killed.
Judge Beckett sentenced Camilleri to two years and four months prison with a 17-month non-parole period.
She said he had good prospects of rehabilitation and was unlikely to reoffend, having shown serious remorse since the crash.
“He said, ‘living with a death in my hands … if I could trade places I would,’” Judge Beckett said.
The court heard Camilleri suffered serious mental health issues – including showing suicidal ideology – since the crash.
He had been in custody since July 4.
The dad-of-one will be eligible for release on parole on December 3, 2024.
After his release, he will be disqualified from driving for two years.