A teenager who struck a pedestrian in Edgewater while riding an electric motorbike in a fatal crash in July last year has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving but will fight a charge of manslaughter, angering the victim’s family.
Shelley Spinks, 59, died after she was struck by a 17-year-old rider described by his family in court as out of control.
Police allege the off-road electric motorbike was unregistered and “travelling erratically” when the crash happened at a park in the northern Perth suburb.
Spinks, a nurse who was originally from New Zealand, was taken to Joondalup Health Campus where she later died from injuries sustained in the collision.
The teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, was charged with manslaughter, no authority to drive and using an unlicensed vehicle on a road, but on Wednesday before Perth Children’s Court he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving instead.
Spinks’ sister told 9News Perth the boy’s actions were “more like murder”.
“It’s like a part of you is gone as well,” Wendy Spinks said.
“Shelley would do anything and everything for people if she could. It’s one thing losing your sister, but in the way this has happened … I mean, you never expect to lose a loved one through someone else’s ignorance.
“My parents are 89 and this has taken a huge toll on them.
“Parents don’t bury their children, do they?”
On Wednesday, the boy’s lawyer Simon Watters told the court his client would be pleading not guilty to the charge of manslaughter.
The matter will now come back before Perth Children’s Court on March 5 for a status conference.
Spinks’ husband, John Harris, previously released a statement thanking police for their support following the crash and remembering his wife as someone with an “infectious smile” while urging action on e-motorbike and e-scooter regulation.
“As a society we must pause and reflect upon the kind of world we want to live in and begin making choices which result in us moving towards that world,” Harris wrote.
“Let us choose to not continue repeating the mistakes of the past.”
