Parents heartbroken after woman who 'killed their son' takes them to court
Topics: Australia, Crime, Instagram, Social Media, World News, Cars
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Featured Image Credit: A Current Affair/YouTube
Topics: Australia, Crime, Instagram, Social Media, World News, Cars
Parents grieving the loss of their son claim they were 'gagged' from talking about him and 'became the bad guys' after the woman responsible for his death took them to court.
Jim and Susie Rapson from Canberra, Australia, were left heartbroken when their 25-year-old son and rising tennis star, Corey, died from his injuries sustained in a car crash in 2018.
His then 24-year-old girlfriend, fashion designer Angela Wilkes, was driving at the time and had reportedly stopped at a red light before accelerating across six lanes of traffic in the Melbourne suburb of Windsor.
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Wilkes was charged with dangerous driving causing death, and initially pleaded guilty to the charge, before claiming a year later that she had fainted behind the wheel.
She changed her plea after meeting a professor of cardiology who determined she had most likely fainted when her car entered the intersection.
The Office of Public Prosecutions accepted her version of events and dropped the case without a trial which the Rapson's said they were never consulted on.
At the time, Jim told A Current Affair: "Here we have someone who's lost their life and the person who caused the accident walks away free.
"We were corralled into a small room (by the OPP) and told the case would be discontinued, and then we were cast into the street. There was no support, there was nothing."
Yet, while in the midst of mourning the loss of their son, the Rapsons said they feel like they have been treated like criminals and were tormented once again when Wilkes took them to court to apply for a personal intervention order (PSIO) against them.
Speaking to the news outlet this January, his mom said: "She was seeking to keep us quiet for her safety.
"But we don't even live in Melbourne, we've only met her in court and I don't know how - we're not violent people."
The parents claim they were 'gagged' by the intervention, which even stopped them from posting on an Instagram account to honor Corey's memory.
The PSIO was eventually dropped, providing the Rapsons agreed not to talk about the woman for 12 months.
That order has since expired, and the grief-stricken family have been able to talk out about the ordeal.
Jim said: "Personally, I've never spoken to this individual at all.
"I've never communicated with her at all."
In her police interview at the time, Wilkes was reportedly asked if she suffered from blackouts or fits, which she replied 'I don't think so'.
Unconvinced that she would have been able to apply enough pressure to the accelerator from a stop position when in a blackout, the family asked prosecutors to review the case, which has been refused.
Jim added: "They decided that no, it's done and dusted now.
"Somehow we became the bad guys.
"We've actually spent more time in court than the driver, to be honest."
The family have since raised $13,137 for the Alfred hospital, where Corey spent three weeks in a coma before his death.