If Trevor Lovett hadn't pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his friend, there's no lawful way he could have been convicted of the crime, a judge has revealed.
After Stephen Watts was stabbed, Lovett rejected suggestions he should call an ambulance and offered instead to drive the injured man to hospital.
But he didn't. Fearing he'd be blamed for killing Mr Watts, he instead drove around Melbourne's outer west while the injured man bled out in the back seat.
Lovett pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis he had a duty of care to his friend and acted with criminal negligence in not taking him to hospital that morning in August 2019.
But in sentencing Lovett on Wednesday, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Michael Croucher said the case was unusual and somewhat less serious than similar cases.
"He has spent enough time in immediate custody for his crime," Justice Croucher said jailing him for five years.
Lovett, 50, will be eligible for parole within a day or two.
Prosecutors conceded there was no evidence at all about how long after they left Lovett's home Mr Watts had died.
It could not be excluded that he died very shortly afterwards and it's only Lovett's guilty plea that implies there was time to get him somewhere for treatment, the court heard.
Justice Croucher said the plea filled a yawning chasm in the prosecution case and was a powerful mitigating factor for sentence.
"There is no lawful conviction without it," he said.
A day after his friends death, Lovett attempted to take his own life in the car with Mr Watts' body outside a Brimbank shopping centre, where they were discovered by passers-by.
Lovett's appalling experiences earlier in life explained his panicked inaction and led to his fears police would not believe his story. Those fears were realised, Justice Croucher said.
After he was revived he was charged with Mr Watts' murder and blamed for the stabbing.
Prosecutors persisted with that charge for three years despite strong evidence pointing to another person and it's only after Lovett offered to plead to manslaughter that prosecutors dropped the murder charge, he said.
Lovett's fear and panic, coupled with his clouded judgment because of drug use on the evening of Mr Watts' death, also reduced his moral culpability, Justice Croucher said.
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