Refugee who reversed back and forth over a woman jailed for just 18 months

A man who callously reversed back and forth over a woman in Dandenong West park has been jailed for more than two years.

Mairown Sahhitanandan and a friend met a woman and her 14-year-old friend outside the Coles on the Princes Highway in October last year.

The group decided to drink at a nearby park, tut when the women wanted to leave, a heated and abusive argument broke out.

The older woman was standing behind Sahhitanandan’s van when he slammed into reverse, her body disappearing under the car, as he drove forwards and backwards again.

She spent weeks in an induced coma, with two collapsed lungs and dozens of fractures.

The Sri Lankan refugee has been handed a minimum jail term of one and a half years.

Justice John Champion said while it was the father of three’s intention to have his wife and children join him here, those hopes have been destroyed.

He will be deported after his sentence.

3AW reporter Stefanie Waclawik was in court.