Mildura hit and run case: Thomas Towle back in jail after parole cancelled

“YOU think about your kids every day. You think about the accident and the good memories and think it’s all going to be OK — what more can this bloke do to us. He killed two of my kids.”

Kerry Prowse has somehow managed to get on with her life. Firstly, after the death of two of her children in an horrific hit-and-run crash, then when the man responsible, Thomas Towle, was freed from jail.

The latest shock was news that Towle, 41, had his parole revoked, although she was forbidden from knowing exactly why.

He was jailed in 2008 for causing the deaths of six Mildura teenagers when he hit them with his car while he was speeding and not paying attention.

Ms Prowse’s children Shane Hirst, 16, and Abby Hirst, 17, were killed along with Stevie-Lee Weight, 15, Cory Dowling, 16, Cassandra Manners, 16, and Josie Calvi, 16 on February 18 last year.

The shocking tragedy moved the then Prime Minister John Howard to comment about the senseless deaths.

“It is just such a tragic loss of young lives. It is heartbreaking. Young kids out on a Saturday night to enjoy themselves and something like this happens.”

For Ms Prowse, the loss of her children is never far from her mind.

“We’ve tried to move on the best we can. I lost my two kids, I have one surviving, well she couldn’t handle it here in Mildura. I couldn’t leave.”

Her daughter Kylie moved to Queensland and her grief-stricken father, who was living in Melbourne, got sick and died. He was born in Mildura but couldn’t bring himself to return after the deaths of Shane and Abby, she told news.com.au.

Towle was jailed for seven years in 2008, but with time already served in custody before his sentencing, he was freed on parole in 2013.

He was recalled to prison three weeks ago, after what Victoria’s Adult Parole Board said was an “escalation of risk to the community”.

“When he got out two years ago we thought ‘it’s all over’ but then he’s stuffed up and it brings it all back again,” she said.

The day she got the phone call and was told that he had done “something” to warrant being back inside she started shaking.

“You have no idea ... She said to me ‘Are you all right’ and I said ‘I’m shaking’ — but it was still the best phone call I’d got in a long, long time.”

She was angry to hear he could reapply for parole and not be forced to sit out his sentence and also that she wasn’t allowed to know why his parole was revoked.

“They can’t tell you, they’re not allowed to tell you.”

Almost a decade later, she is still angry.

“His family probably think he is a victim ... But he deserves to be where he is. We copped seven years of him being inside, you get on with your life a bit, but then he got paroled and was allowed out [and] it all comes back to you again.”

The night of the accident will stay with her forever.

She had been talking on the phone to her daughter Kylie, who had dropped her siblings at a party. They hung up and then the phone rang almost straight away. It was Kylie again. Only this time she was screaming.

“I couldn’t make sense of it. She just said someone had called and said Shane had been in a car accident.”

Thomas Towle walks free

Towle’s sentencing hearing was told he was aware of the party going on and had seen the teenagers by the road earlier.

The judge, Justice Justice Philip Cummins, said that was particularly aggravating.

“Your knowledge that there were, or were likely to be, numerous persons in the relevant area is an especially egregious element of your dangerous driving Mr Towle,” he said.

The judge said upon surveying the scene, Towle left his own traumatised two young children in the car and disappeared for five hours.

The news at the hospital was devastating. Shane’s cousin told her of the aftermath of the crash and how she “couldn’t wake him up” while what seemed like “500 people” milled around in a daze looking for answers.

It wasn’t immediately clear to the family what had happened or how many people had been killed. And no one seemed to know where Abby was.

Initially people said they’d got texts from her, giving them hope she was alive. “But it wasn’t true.”

Their deaths weren’t confirmed for hours. “They sent us home. I couldn’t sleep and then the police turned up and wanted recent photos to identify the bodies.”

Ms Prowse later spoke to an ambulance officer who was traumatised by what he’d seen. He told her Abby was flung several metres from the others.

“The others were huddled in a group together. The poor driver said she was still alive. The doctors told me that if the accident had happened right by the hospital and they’d been able to get her into hospital she might have survived. But she passed away at the scene.”

In a statement, the Parole Board last month said any offender who was on parole could be recalled at any time and returned to custody.

“Even if no condition has been breached, the Board may cancel parole because it considers that the risk posed by the offender remaining on parole has become unacceptable.

“In deciding whether to cancel parole, the Board considers the safety and protection of the community as its paramount consideration.”

As part of his parole conditions Towle was supposed to submit to testing for alcohol and drug testing, not drink, and undergo psychological assessments.

Ms Prowse doesn’t think he should be free. She, along with the families of the other victims, were dismayed that Towle’s prior convictions were kept hidden from the jury.

They were revealed by newspapers the day after the verdict.

She wants answers as to what he was doing the time he was on a parole. “We don’t know what it is. Anything to do with breaking the law is breaking his parole.”

For now though all she has are her memories of her children — and her dreams of what they would have become.

“A lot of their friends, I went to their weddings and their 21sts. My biggest thing, though, is I wonder what they would look like? You just don’t know.”

andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au

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