A woman who accidentally killed her sister during a roadside argument and then drove off has complained about her lot in life since the incident.
Asyai Luk, now aged 24, was charged with dangerous driving causing death and failing to stop and render assistance over the November 2022 hit and run in Sunshine, in Melbourne‘s west.
But a sweetheart plea deal could see her walk with not so much as a criminal conviction.
The learner driver fronted the County Court of Victoria on Monday for a pre-sentence hearing.
Luk was behind the wheel when her sister, Anong Luk, 24, was dragged and pinned between two vehicles in Sunshine.
Footage captured from across the street and seen by Daily Mail Australia showed the shocking moment Anong hit against a parked vehicle on the street.
She is seen jumping immediately to her feet, seemingly uninjured, before dashing across the street where she collapsed and died.
It is understood her younger sister was under the impression she hadn’t been seriously hurt in the incident, driving off unaware she was critically injured.
It was alleged Asyai Luk (pictured outside court on Monday) was driving an SUV and accelerated when Anong Luk was trying to get inside. She was facing trial before a prosecution backflip
Anong Luk (pictured), 24, died when she was pinned between two cars in what was initially treated as an alleged hit and run
In June, Luk pleaded guilty to the summary charges of careless driving and driving as a learner without an experienced adult driver.
On Monday, her barrister Ian McDonald KC did his best to convince Judge Kellie Blair that his client not only didn’t deserve a conviction, but shouldn’t be fined either.
In a pleading letter penned to the judge, Luk complained about the shame and anxiety she had experienced in her local community due to media reporting on the matter.
She told judge the backlash from the reporting had been ‘devastating’ and she now suffered from sleeplessness, fear, loss of appetite and struggled to maintain focus.
It had also impacted on her socially, she complained.
Crown prosecutor Peter Pickering said such complaints were common among those facing justice for crimes they had committed.
‘Sadly I’m not surprised,’ he said. ‘It shows the consequences for her.’
The matter had been set to go to trial before prosecutors withdrew the majority of its charges against Luk.
It remains unclear why the prosecution decided to withdraw its case just before trial.
Asyai Luk faced a media storm when she left the County Court of Victoria in June alongside her lawyer George Balot (left)
Asyai Lu has pleaded guilty to two minor road traffic offences that ought see her escape with nothing more than a fine
The court heard Luk had no business being behind the wheel without an experienced supervisor.
Only months earlier she had been suspended from driving for three months after she was clocked driving more than 25kmh over the speed limit.
On the day her sister died she had been driving around unsupervised for hours.
In asking for his client to be released on a good behaviour bond without conviction, Mr McDonald claimed the now single mum could struggle to find work should a conviction be recorded.
He reiterated his client’s claims that she had suffered from the media attention and argued the general public would ‘get the message’ not to do as she had done via letting her walk from court on a bond.
‘The court can achieve the purpose of sentencing with a good behaviour bond,’ he said.
But Mr Pickering claimed anything other than a conviction would send the wrong message to would be learner driver’s who had similar intentions.
‘People must see this as a warning,’ he said.
Judge Blair said she needed time to contemplate her sentence, which she will now deliver on Wednesday.
Anong Luk was allegedly dragged along High Street by the black car before her head hit the front bumper bar of a white Jeep (pictured) parked nearby
Outside court in June, Luk’s lawyer George Balot described the incident as a shocking family tragedy.
‘This tragic incident has weighed heavily on my client, her mother and her siblings for almost two years,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘After extensive legal submissions and negotiations with the prosecution my client has been vindicated of her sisters death. My client and her doting mother continue to mourn the loss of her sister Gul. ‘
In August, Luk’s previous lawyer had argued his client’s charges should be dropped as the incident was a ‘freakish occurrence’ and an accident that neither sister could have foreseen.
‘She got caught in the door unexpectedly,’ defence barrister Peter Morrissey said then.
But the prosecution argued she should be committed to stand trial as the 24-year-old died in the context of a heated argument and Luk had sped off with a car door open.
Both sides had differing interpretations of videos from the scene.
Magistrate Brett Sonnet found the videos were ‘subject to different interpretations’ and decided Luk should stand trial.
‘Ms Luk you’re directed to stand trial in the County Court,’ he told the court then.
The black SUV (pictured) was captured on CCTV driving down High Street after the collision
The magistrates’ court had heard Anong, known as Gol, had tried to get out of the vehicle being driven by her sister when the black SUV accelerated and dragged the victim along the road before crushing her against a parked Jeep.
The two sisters had been involved in a verbal and physical altercation in the car before Luk got out to get help from residents, the court heard.
‘The accused returned to the driver side of the vehicle and continued with a verbal altercation with their sister,’ the prosecutor alleged in court then.
The court heard the sister was ‘kicked out’ of the car and tried to get back in the vehicle in a ‘distressed’ state when Luk allegedly drove off.
The vehicle travelled a short distance before colliding with a white Nossan Patrol parked nearby.
Anong was taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious head injuries but later died.
The girls’ mother, Aleza Gwit, said her oldest daughter Gol was ‘always there for me, checking on me and saying ‘mum I love you’ or ‘I did your dishes’ just to make me happy’.
‘She (Luk) called me like mum she (her sister) got out of the car and she’s angry… I don’t know exactly what happened,’ Ms Gwit told Nine News.
