{"id":830778,"date":"2026-07-29T07:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830778\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T07:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:35:17","slug":"maniac-driver-jordan-kenyon-jailed-for-killing-mia-rossiter-12-in-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830778\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Maniac’ driver Jordan Kenyon jailed for killing Mia Rossiter, 12, in car crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

A driver who killed a 12-year-old girl while high on drugs has been jailed for 16 years, with a Victorian judge describing him as a “maniac”.<\/p>\n

Jordan Kenyon, 31, had taken GHB and crossed onto the wrong side of the road when he lost control of his car and crashed into a family of four on the Hamilton Highway at Stonehaven, near Geelong.<\/p>\n

\"Girl<\/p>\n

Mia Rossiter was 12 years old when she was killed in the car crash at Stonehaven in 2024. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Mia Rossiter was killed and her younger sister, father Paul and mother Danica were injured. Kenyon’s younger brother, a passenger in his car, was also badly hurt.<\/p>\n

“It was really just a matter of time until you killed someone on the road,” County Court Judge Michael Tinney said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“It could have been anyone who was unfortunate enough to have crossed your path on that day.”<\/p>\n

In the hour before the crash Kenyon was seen performing burnouts and had been detected travelling at more than 150km\/h.<\/p>\n

Kenyon was wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet because he was on parole after spending time in jail for a previous dangerous driving offence.<\/p>\n

Judge Tinney said authorities suspected Kenyon had repeatedly breached his parole conditions on numerous occasions and, on the day before the crash, a recommendation was made to have him brought before the parole board.<\/p>\n

“Of course, the events of the third of January then intervened,” Judge Tinney said.<\/p>\n

“I’m not conducting a review of the Adult Parole Board.<\/p>\n

“Whether they should have reclaimed you on a breach, whether they might have some civil liability for not doing so, is really not for me to determine.”<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

In December 2023, Kenyon filmed himself steering a car with his knees while holding his phone in one hand and a can of Jack Daniels in the other.<\/p>\n

The shocking footage, played to the court last week, showed Kenyon swerving onto the wrong side of the road and declaring, “I am the best f***ing designated drunk driver in the world”.<\/p>\n

At one point in the clip, Kenyon tilted his head back and sculled his drink. Judge Tinney likened it to “a cartoon Popeye pouring in a tin of spinach”.<\/p>\n

“You were a maniac on the 14th of December,” he said.<\/p>\n

Weeks later, Mia’s life was taken “wastefully”, “unnecessarily” and “shockingly”, the judge said.<\/p>\n

\"Girl<\/p>\n

Mia Rossiter with her father, Paul, who suffered serious injuries in the crash along with her mother and young sister. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Judge Tinney told the court Mia’s family wanted her to be remembered as a kind, bright, honest and loyal girl. Mia, who had dreams of being a vet, loved Japanese anime and wanted to travel the world.<\/p>\n

“Mia’s life has been tragically cut short, so needlessly, and at such a young age,” Judge Tinney said.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, Kenyon lied to police and falsely claimed he was not the driver, blaming the crash on a non-existent person named “Brad”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The court heard Jordan Kenyon had an extensive history of driving offences. (Supplied: County Court of Victoria)<\/p>\n

Kenyon pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death, negligently causing serious injury and conduct endangering life.<\/p>\n

The judge questioned whether Kenyon’s stated remorse was genuine, given he previously planned to fight the charges and deny that he had taken drugs.<\/p>\n

Kenyon’s lengthy criminal record includes car theft, driving and weapons offences and breaches of community corrections orders.<\/p>\n

“Your driving history is simply deplorable. You have, time and time again, exposed others to danger by driving,” Judge Tinney said.<\/p>\n

“You are a complete menace on the road.<\/p>\n

“You ignore court orders putting you off the road, disqualifying you. You ignore prison. You ignore community corrections orders. You just won’t stop.”<\/p>\n

The killer driver’s 16-year sentence includes a non-parole period of 12 years.<\/p>\n

With time served, the earliest he could be released is 2038.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A driver who killed a 12-year-old girl while high on drugs has been jailed for 16 years, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[159387,57369,10470,43,394175,394174,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-830778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-culpable-driving","tag-drug-driving","tag-fatal-crash","tag-headlines","tag-jordan-kenyon","tag-mia-rossiter","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830778","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=830778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}