A man who punched his best friend's body after they were involved in a fatal car accident has been fined $2,000 and handed a good behaviour bond.
Canberra man Samuel Angus Berron, 24, was the passenger in an accident in Melba last May which killed the driver, Berron's close friend.
The court heard he struck the chest of his friend multiple times and threatened witnesses, after the car he was in crossed a median strip and crashed into a tree.
According to one witness account, Berron yelled at the body: "You better be dead — who's going to pay for my car?"
Berron then proceeded to exit the smashed vehicle, peel back the windscreen and strike his friend again in the chest.
Berron pleaded guilty to interfering with a body and assault in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
The court heard two victim impact statements of relatives of the deceased driver, including his mother.
"You dishonoured and disgraced my son in the worst possible way," the driver's mother, Hazel Grove, told the court.
"You called yourself my son's friend, that's not what friends do."
The court was told the defendant's phone also contained a three-second Snapchat video of the scene immediately following the crash.
"You should have been fighting to save him," Ms Grove said.
"I will never forgive you for what you did to my son."
'Very upsetting and bizarre behaviour'
Lawyer for Berron, Adrian McKenna, said his client had been on the receiving end of an extra curial form of punishment as a consequence of his behaviour.
"He has received a good deal of threats and abuse through social media and his mother said that he was beaten in town one night," Mr McKenna said.
He suggested Berron be transferred to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal to receive a civil, rather the criminal, penalty on the basis of his client's mental impairments, but the court rejected that.
Mr McKenna told the court his client had suffered anxiety, depression, and substance abuse issues before the incident, which had been exacerbated by an additional post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis since the accident.
"In one view this is very upsetting and bizarre behaviour," Mr McKenna said.
"But this is something that happened in a heightened state… it is very apt that there are connections between his behaviour and his condition."
Magistrate Glenn Theakston told the court the offending warranted a criminal punishment and issued the 12-month good behaviour bond and a $2,000 fine.
"It is clearly one [a crime] that is offensive and will provoke anger, astonishment and disgust," he said.
"It is not callous disregard but a spontaneous and uncontrolled response from the defendant."
The defendant will be supervised by ACT Corrective Services over the 12-month period.
Magistrate Theakston said the fine was in no way representative of the driver's life or the disrespect shown towards his body.
He added there was no suggestion the defendant was the cause of the driver's death.
