A recidivist who drunkenly crashed a car at 200kmh while showing off to two teenage girls, killing the pair in "tragically pointless" circumstances, will serve just two years behind bars.
The 17-year-old boy, who cannot legally be named, was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday to three years and 10 months in jail.
However, Justice David Mossop ordered that the final 22 months of the sentence be suspended.
The offender had previously pleaded guilty to four charges laid over the October 2022 crash that killed best friends Claire Sankey, 15, and Susi Kopysiewicz, 14, on the Monaro Highway at Hume.
They included two counts of culpable driving causing death, as well as single charges of failing to render assistance and driving as an unaccompanied learner.
The boy also admitted four charges, including aggravated robbery, linked to an earlier crime spree.
On Wednesday, Justice Mossop outlined how the boy and a co-offender had botched a "terrifying" early morning attempt to carjack a woman in Monash in January 2022.
Within minutes, the pair set their sights on a taxi driver who had kindly offered to give them a free lift.
In what Justice Mossop described as a betrayal of that victim's kindness, the pair threatened him with knives and took off in his taxi, which they damaged so badly it was written off.
Nearly nine months later, the boy was on bail in relation to those crimes.
He was also subject to a good behaviour order imposed over an earlier incident, in which he had drunkenly crashed a stolen car into a pole while on his way to get cigarettes.
'Foolish, impulsive and dangerous'
During what he later described as a three-day "bender", he drank 12 stubbies of beer and about half a one-litre bottle of rum shortly before he went out in his mother's car.
The sleep-deprived offender had also been using cannabis and MDMA.
With another teenage boy in tow, the offender drove to Theodore to pick Claire up before heading for Coombs to collect Susi.
Trying to impress his passengers, he drove at excessive speeds and ignored the girls' repeated warnings to slow down.
Eventually, while hurtling down the Monaro Highway at about 200kmh, he lost control on a bend and the vehicle spun off the road.
One of Claire's supporters cried in the court's public gallery as Justice Mossop recounted how the car crashed through temporary construction fencing and struck a tree so hard the trunk snapped.
When the Camry came to rest, having hit a second tree, the two boys got out and ran away.
Failure of common decency
They then left the area in an Uber, repeatedly calling the girls but getting no answer as they fled.
The offender told the other boy not to call the police, who would later discover the girls dead in the wreckage.
While the crash did not kill either Susi or Claire instantly, autopsies revealed they would both almost certainly have died irrespective of whether they had received medical treatment.
Justice Mossop found the killer's failure to render assistance was nevertheless a serious offence, which breached the "standard of common decency" expected of drivers who were involved in a crash.
In relation to the culpable driving offences, the judge found a variety of aggravating features and described the 17-year-old's moral culpability as high.
"Clearly ... the offender was old enough to be driving and to be beyond his mother's control, yet young enough to engage in the foolish, impulsive and dangerous activities he did," the judge said.
Acknowledgement 'of little comfort'
He also noted the court had received a victim impact statement from Claire's sister, Nora Lal, who detailed her struggles with the grief of losing a girl described as "the light of our lives".
"It's clear that the loss of two young lives in such tragically pointless circumstances will have a profound effect," Justice Mossop said.
He said the court acknowledged the impact of this loss on the victims' distraught loved ones, though this would probably be "of little comfort" to them.
While it was important for the court to recognise the harm done to the victims, Justice Mossop said rehabilitation was always a crucial part of the sentencing exercise for young offenders.
There were already "positive signs" for the future, the judge said, reflecting on how the teenager had been "polite, respectful and engaged" since being put behind bars.
Justice Mossop said the challenge would be for the boy to "avoid the pitfalls of drugs and antisocial associates" upon his release, which, with time already served on remand, will be in October 2024.
The boy will then be on probation while subject to a good behaviour order for the rest of his sentence.
'Don't expect much justice'
Following the sentencing, the head of the local police union again criticised the ACT courts.
Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana called the outcome "outrageous".
He said it was further evidence of the need for an independent review of sentencing and bail outcomes, which ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury has dismissed as unnecessary.
"If you're a victim in Canberra, don't expect much justice," Mr Caruana said.
"That is the sad reality of the system in the ACT."
