Driver avoids jail for hit-and-run that killed woman kneeling on Adelaide road
Ashton Friend was behind the wheel of a fatal hit-and-run at Hillcrest in 2025. (ABC News: Jordanna Schriever)
In short:
A man has been given a suspended sentence over a road crash that killed 20-year-old international student Samia Malik.
Ashton Friend had pleaded guilty to causing death by careless use of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident.
The court heard today CCTV showed Ms Malik's hands were in what looked like a "praying motion" but no explanation was given as to why she was on the road.
A young driver who hit and killed a woman kneeling, with her hands in a praying motion, on a road in Adelaide's north-east has avoided jail.
Ashton Friend, 20, of Banksia Park, previously pleaded guilty to causing death by careless use of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident after causing the death of 20-year-old international student Samia Malik.
South Australia's District Court previously heard Ms Malik had been kneeling on North East Road at Hillcrest for around four minutes before she was hit by Friend's car about 11pm on May 6, 2025.
In sentencing Friend on Tuesday, Judge Anne Barnett said CCTV vision showed Ms Malik's hands were in what looked like a "praying motion".
No other explanation has been given as to why the 20-year-old was on the road.
It also heard that Friend had not seen Ms Malik nor realised he had hit her when he was driving home from his girlfriend's house.
"He was absolutely at a loss about what had just happened. He hadn't been aware that there was something on the road. He heard this noise," defence barrister Jane Abbey KC had submitted to the court.
"What he hoped was that it had been an animal, or something like that."
CCTV captured Samia Malik being struck by Ashton Friend's vehicle. (Supplied)
Ms Abbey added that there was "relatively little" damage to Friend's car.
"He did not think he had hit a person. Initially, he just did not realise he had hit a person,"
she said.
The court had heard that in the days following the collision, Friend saw a news report about what had happened but was in a "state of paralysis".
Friend also previously read an apology to the court in which he said he was "deeply sorry".
"I will have to carry my failures with me for as long as I live," he said.
Judge Barnett sentenced Friend to one year, three months and 29 days with a non-parole period of eight months.
The sentence was suspended upon the 20-year-old entering a bond to be of good behaviour for two years.
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