{"id":4592,"date":"2026-05-04T17:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4592\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T17:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T17:09:18","slug":"jail-then-deportation-for-new-zealander-who-reversed-over-crowd-outside-port-elliot-pub-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4592\/","title":{"rendered":"Jail then deportation for New Zealander who reversed over crowd outside Port Elliot pub in SA"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New Zealand national is likely to be deported after being jailed for six years after reversing into a crowd of people at a South Australian pub while more than twice the legal blood alcohol limit.<\/p>\n

Eric Danielle Tama Wharerua Cooper, 38, previously pleaded guilty to an aggravated count of causing serious harm by dangerous driving and eight aggravated counts of causing harm over the incident in the early hours of October 5, 2024.<\/p>\n

In sentencing today, District Court Judge Heath Barklay said Cooper “weaponised [his] vehicle” when he reversed into a group of people outside the Royal Family Hotel in Port Elliot<\/a>, following a confrontation.<\/p>\n

“You could not have failed to realise when you put your car into reverse that it was likely, if not inevitable, that you would drive into multiple people,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Ambulances<\/p>\n

Nine people were seriously injured when Eric Cooper reversed a car into the crowd. (Supplied: Gary Juleff)<\/p>\n

During a pre-sentence hearing last month, Cooper read an apology letter to the court and said he regretted his actions “every day that goes by”.<\/p>\n

“My behaviour was idiotic and reckless and unfortunately, I did hurt innocent bystanders when I put my car in reverse,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and I’m full of regrets.<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry for putting fear into your lives and the amount of pain, physically and psychologically.”<\/p>\n

‘Lack of insight’ from accused<\/p>\n

Judge Barklay said he found that despite Cooper’s apology, he still appeared to have “a complete lack of insight into the genesis of what caused the carnage”.<\/p>\n

“The thing about your apology that struck me was that you do not seem to take responsibility for causing the whole thing in the first place,” he said.<\/p>\n

During a hearing last month, prosecutor Lucy Hurley told the court that Cooper was driving around Port Elliot about 1am “at speed, revving the engine and doing burnouts” when he got the attention of people outside the Port Elliot pub.<\/p>\n

She said some of the patrons told Cooper to slow down, which resulted in him “exiting the car”.<\/p>\n

“There was an altercation between the defendant and some of the patrons,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The defendant got back into his car and a small group of the patrons were seen kicking and punching his car.<\/p>\n

“What the defendant did next though is, in my submission, egregious.<\/p>\n

“He drove forward, but instead of simply driving off, he made a deliberate decision to slam on the brakes \u2026 and then reversed and turned his car so it went up onto the sidewalk, into a group of people.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The court previously heard Eric Cooper reversed into the crowd after people damaged his car. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The court heard Cooper then drove off before being arrested a short time later, recording a blood alcohol concentration of 0.120, which is more than double the legal limit.<\/p>\n

Ms Hurley read nine victim impact statements to the court on behalf of those injured when Cooper reversed into the crowd.<\/p>\n

“Before this happened, [he] had just found his independence \u2026 and to have it taken away by a car pinning him to a wall,” the mother of one of the victims wrote.<\/p>\n

“He was an innocent bystander going out to de-escalate the situation. [He] was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and got punished for it.<\/p>\n

“I still feel sick when I think of the horrific injuries he suffered.”<\/p>\n

The court heard the young man suffered two broken legs and severe blood loss.<\/p>\n

It also heard he had to undergo two surgeries \u2014 totalling more than 20 hours \u2014 to save one of his legs.<\/p>\n

Another victim impact statement detailed the incident as a “deliberate and violent act” that was “not an accident”, while others said it had changed their lives forever.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Eric Cooper will spend at least two years and three months more in jail. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Cooper ‘aware’ of impact<\/p>\n

Defence counsel for Cooper, Tim Dibden, told the court during the pre-sentence hearing that his client was “aware of the broader impact of his foolish, alcohol-affected aggressive driving”.<\/p>\n

He added that Cooper would likely be deported once his sentence had been served.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old was sentenced to six years behind bars, with a non-parole period of three years and 10 months.<\/p>\n

The sentence was backdated to when he was taken into custody, meaning he will be eligible for release in August 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New Zealand national is likely to be deported after being jailed for six years after reversing into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[395,22,21,1991,5691,5855,5854,5700,5682,5853],"class_list":{"0":"post-4592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-adelaide","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-austrlia","11":"tag-crash","12":"tag-eric-cooper","13":"tag-gidget-whibley","14":"tag-hit-run","15":"tag-port-elliot","16":"tag-royal-family-hotel","17":"tag-victor-harbor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}