District Court<\/a> where several of Bell\u2019s distraught family read out their victim impact statements.<\/p>\n![\"The]()
The crash happened at the intersection of Whatawhata Rd and Poaka Ave in Hamilton in 2021. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n
\u2018He never came home\u2019<\/p>\n
Bell\u2019s sister, Manawa Bell, said her brother was deeply loved, and shared a close bond with his other sister, Fiona \u2013 they were a year apart in age.<\/p>\n
The pair grew up side by side in life, and on the morning he died, before he went out the door, Bell told her he would be back to celebrate her birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore leaving, he said, \u2018see you soon, sis, we will go to dinner for your birthday when I get back\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he never came home.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bell said wh\u0101nau gatherings were no longer the same without Adrian, who was known for his athletic ability, kind heart and love of heavy metal music. <\/p>\n
However, she said she \u201cdid not stand here before the court asking for vengeance\u201d.<\/p>\n
She instead hoped the court would understand how much her brother was loved and the depth of their loss.<\/p>\n
\u2018Shunted through iron gates\u2019<\/p>\n
At trial, Barnett said he had \u201cblacked out\u201d on the day of the collision as he drove down Poaka Ave, nearing the intersection with Whatawhata Rd.<\/p>\n
He went through the stop sign, crashed into Dawson\u2019s ute then drove up on the kerb, where he struck Bell, who was walking along the footpath, shunting him through the iron gates of a nearby property.<\/p>\n
Bell was thrown into a garden. Barnett\u2019s Volkswagen then crashed into the back of two parked cars, which were pushed into the property\u2019s house, causing damage.<\/p>\n
Bell died at the scene, while Barnett and Dawson suffered minor injuries.<\/p>\n
Barnett\u2019s driver\u2019s licence has since been medically revoked.<\/p>\n
\u2018The seizures were persistent and recurrent\u2019<\/p>\n
Crown solicitor Lexie Glaser pushed for Barnett to receive a prison sentence, arguing there were three aggravating features, with the main one being that he knowingly continued to drive despite suffering a medical condition.<\/p>\n
That, together with the fact he\u2019d been experiencing the seizures for five years before the crash and three days prior sought medical advice amid concerns his lack of sleep would result in him suffering a seizure, led to \u201ccatastrophic harm\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were not isolated or unexpected. They were persistent and recurrent.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also filled out applications for his restricted and then full driver\u2019s licences, without declaring the seizures.<\/p>\n
\u2018It was just one epileptic fit\u2019<\/p>\n
Mark Jepson, counsel for Barnett, said his client hadn\u2019t driven since the crash.<\/p>\n
As for sentencing, he argued there weren\u2019t any additional factors present, other than knowingly continuing to drive, which was inherent in the charge.<\/p>\n
He said Barnett\u2019s driving was \u201cone piece of driving of a single event, where he has suffered an epileptic fit or seizure\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Kyle]()
Kyle Sean Barnett leaves the Hamilton District Court in April. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is one aggravating feature,\u201d adding that it didn\u2019t include speed, alcohol or drugs.<\/p>\n
He urged the judge to take a starting point of three years\u2019 jail and pushed for discounts totalling 50%, to include remorse, youth, previous good character, $2000 reparation and the contents of a mental health report.<\/p>\n
\u2018It has had a significant effect on Barnett\u2019<\/p>\n
Judge Tompkins noted that after the crash, Barnett had been diagnosed with epilepsy.<\/p>\n
He said while there was some strength to Jepson\u2019s submission around aggravating features, that was outweighed by Barnett\u2019s five-year-long driving with a known medical condition.<\/p>\n
He then took a starting point of four years\u2019 jail before assessing the various discounts and the views of the victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is, however, a particularly commendable aspect of the victim impact statements, wh\u0101nau confirm that they are not at court today, seeking vengeance. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat in itself is particularly laudable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Tompkins said the discounts being sought by the defendant were appropriate; he had no previous convictions, was still relatively young, and the aftermath of the crash had had a \u201csignificant effect on the defendant and his partner\u201d.<\/p>\n
He then got down to two years\u2019 jail, and as home detention was recommended in a pre-sentence report, together with the wh\u0101nau not seeking vengeance, he agreed to convert that to 12 months\u2019 home detention.<\/p>\n
The judge also disqualified Barnett from driving for three years and ordered emotional harm to Bell\u2019s mother of $2000.<\/p>\n
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bell was walking along Whatawhata Rd when Barnett\u2019s out-of-control car went through an intersection, crashing into a ute…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[50503,23607,17094,149286,2033,6325,177,3549,6179,2946,19552,32255,11784,14648,34888,1334,44012,238882,111,139,69,27886,2249,213,1318,6859],"class_list":["post-473465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adrian","tag-approach","tag-avoid","tag-barnett","tag-bell","tag-birthday","tag-celebrate","tag-crash","tag-died","tag-dinner","tag-driver","tag-familys","tag-fatal","tag-hed","tag-helps","tag-jail","tag-kyle","tag-laudable","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sister","tag-soon","tag-sports","tag-theyd","tag-told"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}