“For the rest of his life, he will have to live with the knowledge that his poor actions killed his son… It’s a sentence that has already begun.”
That’s what Daniel Mehlhopt’s lawyer told the court when he was sentenced to four years in prison for a drunken car crash that killed his 4-year-old.
However, that sentence has now ended, with Mehlhopt approved for early release after spending just over two years behind bars.
It was Mehlhopt’s second attempt at parole after making a bid for release in January this year.
However, at that hearing, he didn’t have any mention of needing to remain sober in his release plan, and didn’t grasp that complete abstinence from alcohol would be imperative to his remaining out of jail, the New Zealand Parole Board said.
“The Board was concerned that Mr Mehlhopt lacked an intrinsic identification of the need for complete abstinence,” the board outlined in a decision released to NZME today.
However, nearly eight months on and Mehlhopt has managed to convince the board that he is safe to be released back into the community.
Daniel Melhopt will be released on parole after being jailed in July 2023. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
Since his first hearing, he has significantly revised his safety plan to identify alcohol as his main risk factor.
“Mr Mehlhopt understands the necessity of maintaining complete abstinence,” the board said.
“He stated that he is one of those individuals who cannot have ‘just one drink’”.
“You are way past the point of simply having a drinking problem.”
Six beers and a fatal crash
It wasn’t one drink, but five high-strength beers he consumed before driving from Palmerston North to Waipukurau in February 2023 to collect his son Dylan Mehlhopt-Foster from his mother’s house.
Mehlhopt also took another with him, which he drank along the way.
After putting Dylan in a car seat in the rear passenger side of his vehicle, Mehlhopt began the journey back to Palmerston North.
He approached Dannevirke at the intersection of State Highway 2 and Wahipai Close at 4.20pm but failed to take a sweeping bend and lost control of his car.
The vehicle spun 180 degrees and collided with a tree before rolling down a 5m bank and coming to a rest at the bottom.
Dylan died at the scene.
Mehlhopt’s blood was taken for analysis at Palmerston North Hospital and found to contain 246mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 50mg.
It was Daniel Mehlhopt’s fifth drink-driving conviction in the last two decades. In 2014, a judge told him he was on his “last warning”.
Dylan with his mum Chloe Foster. Photo / Givealittle
In July 2023, Judge Jonathan Krebs sentenced Mehlhopt on a charge of driving with excess blood alcohol causing death, to two years and 10 months’ imprisonment and disqualified him from driving for four years.
“You are way past the point of simply having a drinking problem. You are an alcoholic,” he said.
“That is a disease, and it has consumed you.”
‘I have to spend the rest of my life as a childless mother’
Mehlhopt will be released in September this year, but will be subject to a long list of conditions.
Those conditions include attending drug and alcohol counselling and to not consume either substance, not to drive without permission and being subject to electronic monitoring.
He is also not to have any contact with Dylan’s mother Chloe Foster, which was a specific request she made to the board.
At Mehlhopt’s sentencing Foster told the court her ex-partner had destroyed her life.
“I feel I’ve not only been robbed of my son, but also my joy in life,” she said.
“I have to spend the rest of my life as a childless mother.”
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatu, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
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