A P-plate driver whose infant son died after he crashed his car in Perth's south while driving at about 200 kilometres per hour has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison.
James Farmer's car crashed into a power pole on the Kwinana Freeway in April 2018 and Farmer, his partner and his three-month-old son were all thrown from the vehicle.
The baby was fatally hurt while Farmer's partner suffered multiple injuries.
Farmer, who was 20 at the time, was found guilty of manslaughter and dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm after a jury trial in the Supreme Court.
He recorded a blood alcohol level of nearly three times the legal limit after the crash.
Justice Sam Vandongen said Farmer had driven "like a maniac", in a way that was "outrageously dangerous" to those in the vehicle and other road users.
"You knew you had been drinking alcohol," Justice Vandongen said, adding that Farmer "knew or should've known" he should not have got behind the wheel.
Burnouts, vomiting preceded crash
The court heard Farmer had undertaken a "reasonably sustained period of reckless driving" on the night of the crash, including a burnout in a suburban street in Baldivis.
Justice Vandongen said a tyre had been damaged and he went to a service station, where Farmer threw up in the garden, before setting off on the freeway in a southerly direction.
Farmer's estimated speed was 180 to 200kph.
Justice Vandongen told the court he had "real doubts" about whether Farmer had suffered memory loss.
He referred to witness statements that soon after the crash, he had yelled out he was sorry and that he had "f***ed up".
The court heard Farmer had experienced a positive upbringing with supportive parents.
Farmer, who is now 25, was sentenced to nine years and nine months in jail.
He will have to serve a minimum of seven years and nine months before being eligible for parole.
Feeling of 'deep failure towards family'
Earlier, Farmer's lawyer Jonathan Davies told the court his client should be given the opportunity to rehabilitate.
Farmer understood the "traumatic consequences", including the impacts on "passers-by who attended", police, and emergency services personnel, Mr Davies said.
His client did not have a "true memory" of the events, why he was drinking to excess or why he drove the way he did, Mr Davies told the court.
But Farmer had a feeling of "deep failure towards his family", the court was told.
Mr Davies said there was an "acceptance of responsibility" and his client was "already on the way to rehabilitation".
However, prosecutor Ben Stanwix told the court Farmer's expression of acceptance after "repeated trials" was "meaningless".
In previous proceedings, it had been suggested that it may have been Farmer's partner who was driving.
Mr Stanwix said "many members of the public" had suffered trauma as a result of the crash.
