Ben Adey-McCartney: Driver in mate’s Moore River drunken car-surfing death hit with three-year jail term

A young driver who let his 21-year-old friend drunkenly car-surf on a pre-Christmas camping trip — suffering fatal injuries when he fell onto the road — has been handed a three-year jail term. Ben Adey-McCartney and Maxwell Darley Syme were the same age when they pitched their tent at Moore River with two other mates on December 23, 2021. They began drinking around noon, continued when they fished, when they had dinner at the campsite and then at the local country club, where Mr Syme was denied service. He had downed a bottle of Jack Daniels and multiple beers. When they left, Adey-McCartney knew Mr Syme was on the roof of his Nissan Patrol, unrestrained and very drunk. As the vehicle turned a bend and swerved to avoid a car parked on the side of the road, he fell and struck his head on the bitumen. Mr Syme suffered a traumatic brain injury and died in hospital the following month. Adey-McCartney lied when he called triple-0, claiming his mate had jumped out of the moving car. Adey-McCartney, now 24, was charged with drink driving but it was not until September 2023 that he was hit with a manslaughter charge. On the eve of his trial in June this year, he pleaded guilty to the downgraded charge of dangerous driving occasioning death after his lawyer Rebekah Sleeth clinched a deal with prosecutors. Ms Sleeth told Supreme Court of WA Justice Natalie Whitby on Tuesday that her client’s conduct after the tragedy looked selfish on the face of it, but he was deeply remorseful. “He is responsible for the death of one of his closest friends. And he struggled to accept the fact,” Ms Noonan said. “Mr Adey-McCartney should have been protecting him from himself. But he made a serious error in judgement.” Prosecutor Elisabeth Noonan read out a heart-breaking victim impact statement by Mr Syme’s mother Jody Syme, in which she said the overwhelming grief and loss she struggled with would remain forever. It was “a direct result of recklessness and poor decisions” that showed “complete disregard” for her son’s life, Ms Syme wrote. “My son’s future was stolen,” she said. “There are no words to describe the pain ... his absence is going to be a part of my life. “I still wait for him to walk in and ask, ‘What’s for dinner?’” Justice Whitby said Adey-McCartney made a deliberate decision to drive in such risky circumstances, affected by alcohol and travelling at 50-60km/h before the horror unfolded. “Max was only 21 and he had his whole life ahead of him,” Justice Whitby said. “Your reckless choice to drive on that night has taken Max away from his family. “Had you not made that choice, Max would still be here. “What happened to Max was not an accident. It was entirely preventable.” The judge noted how young Adey-McCartney was and his prior good character but said the offence was so devastatingly serious that she could not suspend his sentence. He will be eligible for parole after serving 18 months and will have his driver’s licence disqualified for two years on release.