A Melbourne driver has told a judge he's "overwhelmed with guilt and shame" for hitting a pedestrian, leaving him partially paralysed and with a permanent brain injury.
George Maranis, 30, has pleaded guilty to offences including dangerous driving causing serious injury over the February 2016 CBD crash, which left father-of-two and musician Christopher Timms paralysed on the left side of his body and requiring 24-hour care.
"I cannot change any of the pain and suffering I have caused and I am overwhelmed with guilt and shame," Maranis said in a letter tendered to Victoria's County Court on Wednesday.
He took full responsibility for the crash near Flagstaff Railway Station.
Maranis was speeding and fatigued at the time, and admitted to taking the drug ice before getting behind the wheel.
"I only have myself to blame for how I'm feeling," he said, adding he had been "tortured for years by the horrible drug ice" in the lead up to the crash.
Mr Timms' parents, former partner and two teenager daughters told the court their lives were irreparably shattered.
"I have had to grieve the loss of Chris. We have lost him," Mr Timms' former partner Jorgia Gerogakopolous, the mother of his two daughters, said in a statement read on Wednesday.
"Having a person survive only to live a life locked in a disabled body ... It's the cruellest outcome."
One of Mr Timms' daughters, aged 16, said she had been left "mourning someone who was still alive".
"This offence has infuriated me to the point of rage beyond any other," she wrote.
"All I can say is that I am simply disgusted."
Her sister, 14, said "no one should be allowed to get away with ruining someone's life".
Judge Paul Higham ordered Maranis, who has a long history of driving offences, be assessed for a Community Corrections Order before sentencing on March 2.
Maranis' lawyer, Colin Mandy, said his client was no longer using drugs and had turned his life around.
"Your Honour is sentencing a different person for something that happened two years ago, and that has to be given some weight," Mr Mandy said.
Australian Associated Press
