hit Mr McLuckie’s car head-on, killing him.<\/a><\/p>\nMr McLuckie had been travelling home from his work at Canberra’s airport.<\/p>\n
‘He should be here’![\"Matthew,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3f7ec37c1066072681bd561c67dfd916\")
<\/p>\n
Matthew McLuckie with his brother Joe and parents Amanda and Tom. He died in May 2022. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Mr McLuckie’s loved ones breathed sighs of relief and cheered “yes” when Adams was sentenced to the maximum penalty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr McLuckie’s father, Tom McLuckie, said despite feeling “relieved”, every day remained a challenge for his family.<\/p>\n
“I’m never going to wake up and be at ease with what happened to my son, I never will,” he said outside court.<\/p>\n
“I will always remember him and he’s never here now.<\/p>\n
“He should be here today. I wish I’d never been in these courts, ever.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if you do move on, but you cope.”<\/p>\n
Indefinite driving disqualification<\/p>\n
Adams was handed a non-parole period of nine years and will not be eligible for release until August 2034.<\/p>\n
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum said Adams posed a significant “danger” to society.<\/p>\n
She was also disqualified from driving indefinitely.<\/p>\n
“I cannot be confident she would not attempt to drive if at liberty in the community,” Justice McCallum said.<\/p>\n
“That is a risk that will not be taken through me.”<\/p>\n
Justice McCallum said on the night of the crash, Adams had driven “dangerously and erratically” covering 19.5 kilometres in 17 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said at one point Adams had sped through a red light with five other cars in the vicinity.<\/p>\n
“Almost every second exposed others to risk,” Justice McCallum said.<\/p>\n
The court heard Adams had not slept for a number of days before the crash and tests revealed drugs, including ice, in her system, which Justice McCallum found would have “impaired her driving considerably”.<\/p>\n
Adams was seriously injured in the crash and has a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n
‘Trauma-informed’ hearing<\/p>\n
Matthew McLuckie’s family have maintained a constant presence through every court appearance.<\/p>\n
His father, Tom, placed a framed photo of his son in the court each time.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for Adams objected at one point, but Chief Justice Lucy McCallum said the photo could remain.<\/p>\n
“It behoves the court to hold the hearing in a way that is trauma-informed,” Chief Justice McCallum said.![\"Wreckage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1c013fddec0cc25b7c006eb56ac9c1a6\")
<\/p>\n
Police allege the woman was travelling at a speed of at least\u00a0177kph. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
At the outset, Adams’s lawyers made applications for her to be declared unfit to plead.<\/p>\n
But Chief Justice McCallum said Adams was capable of retaining and retrieving information and could stand trial.<\/p>\n
After that bid failed, Adams’s lawyers made a last-ditch attempt and gave evidence to the court themselves, with her solicitor telling the court she was unable to take instructions from Adams.<\/p>\n
But Adams pleaded guilty before a trial could be convened, paving the way for today’s sentencing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canberra woman Shakira Adams has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for killing 20-year-old Matthew McLuckie in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8288,42182,25718,64,63,2667,1154,193912,1300,1730,193915,193909,193916,193913,193908,44,193911,822,193910,193914],"class_list":["post-353270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-8288","tag-act-policing","tag-act-supreme-court","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canberra","tag-crash","tag-culpable-driving-causing-death","tag-death","tag-drugs","tag-head-on","tag-hindmarsh-drive","tag-illicit-substances","tag-lucy-mccallum","tag-matthew-mcluckie","tag-news","tag-pleaded-guilty","tag-racing","tag-shakira-adams","tag-tom-mcluckie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}