Ben Kelly is now in jail for ‘appalling’ driving prior to a serious crash on the Lewis Pass and assaulting his partner

His lawyer, Josh Friend, described the driving as “appalling” and “frankly, very dangerous”.

Crown prosecutor Daniel Baxter described Kelly during sentencing in the case Nelson District Court as “the aggressor in the vehicle and the aggressor at home.”

On the afternoon of June 16 last year, Kelly was driving on State Highway 7, on the Lewis Pass in a narrow and winding area with a speed limit of 50mph.

He was seen tailgating another car, overtaking others on blind bends, crossing the center line and nearly losing control on the gravel shoulder.

At one point he got out of his car to urinate, but once back in the car he overtook the traffic he had passed earlier at speeds of up to 140 km/h.

Once again he overtook on blind bends, opened the tailgate and crossed the road. He then overtook a large truck, without knowing whether there were oncoming traffic.

About half an hour later he collided with the driver of the smaller vehicle, traveling in the same direction, who was thrown on impact and suffered serious injuries, including a broken neck and back.

Emergency services had to perform a delicate extraction from the area along the bank where the driver was thrown.

Kelly’s car also left the road and rolled down the bank. He managed to clamber back to the road, where he verbally abused people who had stopped to help.

He was taken to hospital but refused to provide a blood sample and told police to “fuck off”.

The driver of the other vehicle was flown to hospital by rescue helicopter.

The next day, Kelly refused to talk to police, telling them to “figure it out for themselves.”

Judge Jo Rielly said it would have been nice if the court had known more to credit the injured driver, but there was no information.

Kelly was sentenced to a total of 17 months in prison at separate times last year on two charges of dangerous driving, and then on December 13 last year for assaulting his partner.

The attack

Early that evening, Kelly and his partner were at a social sporting event when a minor altercation ensued as they drove home and they punched each other.

Kelly then elbowed his partner in the face and chest, and later punched her in the face after they got home and an argument broke out over what happened in the car earlier.

The woman was scared enough to leave the house and hide, but returned to gather items. Police arrived to find Kelly pushing her out the door and screaming.

He then shouted profanities at police, and while he was being arrested, he started banging his head on the patrol car window.

When one of the officers reached out to stop him, Kelly bit him on the arm and punctured his skin.

Baxter described the attack as at the high end because it involved biting a police officer who had tried to stop Kelly from hurting himself.

The officer was taken to hospital where he was treated for the wound.

Once at the police station, Kelly violently resisted while in the charging room and kicked another officer in the leg.

Judge Rielly noted that Kelly was “no stranger to the legal process”, and although his driving was “very serious”, it was clear that the most serious offense was the assault on a person in a family relationship, for whom a protection order had been made. was in place, and therefore he violated that order.

On the charges of assault on a person in a family relationship, breach of a protection order and assault on a police officer, Judge Rielly imposed a prison sentence of fifteen months.

After increases and credits, the result was 14 months in prison on the charges related to the assaults.

On the dangerous driving charge, he was sentenced to a maximum of three months in prison, served cumulatively.

He was given a one-month suspension on the charge of refusing blood, and then given credit for his guilty plea, back to the three-month maximum.

“The sentence is one that some may find wholly inadequate, but the maximum (sentence) is what it is,” Judge Rielly said.

The final sentence was a prison sentence of 17 months. Kelly was refused permission to apply for home detention due to previous non-compliance while on bail and was disqualified from driving indefinitely.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s Nelson-Marlborough regional reporter and has covered general news including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.