Towle was jailed for a maximum 10-year term after ploughing into a group of 13 teenagers, killing six, after a 16th birthday celebration on the outskirts of Mildura.
Stevie-Lee Weight, 15, Shane Hirst, 16, Abby Hirst, 17, Cory Dowling, 16, Cassandra Manners, 16, and Josie Calvi, 16, all died on February 18, 2006.
Towle had been speeding and had his four-year-old child sitting on his lap at the time of the crash. He fled the scene before being arrested five hours later. He was found not guilty of culpable driving, but guilty of six counts of dangerous driving causing death and four of dangerous driving causing serious injury.
Thomas Towle arriving at court in March 2008.Credit: Nine News
“It was your speed and lack of attention which caused these catastrophic consequences. These tragic deaths were caused by you and you alone,” Judge Philip Cummins told Towle in sentencing him at the time.
On the night of the tragic crash, Towle’s younger brother, Darren, cautioned him to drive carefully because of a party in Myall Street, which links the hamlets of Red Cliffs and Cardross, about 20 kilometres south of Mildura.
The seven-year minimum sentence caused an uproar among friends and families of the victims at the time. Their distress was amplified when Towle’s lawyers launched an appeal against the sentence in 2008.
The appeal was unsuccessful, but Towle was released from an Ararat medium security prison in 2013 after serving 7½ years. He was again placed behind bars in 2015, for breaching his parole conditions.
Towle is to appear at the Bendigo Magistrates Court again on February 26.
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