WHEN Ken Grant was finally stopped by police, after the fatal hit-and-run and the wild pursuit on only two working tyres, the first words out of his mouth were to invoke his son's name.
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"My son is Troy Grant, the police minister," he said. "And I am pissed."
Later, at the police station, after he had blown well over the legal blood alcohol limit, his next words were to ask if "something can be done about it". The retired police inspector was looking for a favour, some leniency.
"The reading is the reading," a police officer told Ken Grant. "That sort of thing doesn't happen anymore."
There seemed to be no doubt it was Ken Grant's car that had hit and killed scientist Tony Greenfield on Flat Road at Bolwarra - the Mazda ute was damaged and the victim's DNA was found on the passenger side.
Nor was there any dispute Ken Grant was the one driving - he was pulled out of the car by police after the pursuit.
And there was no doubt he was drunk - witnesses at the Christmas party that night described him as "hammered" and "staggering all over the place" and he recorded a blood alcohol reading of .108, which rose, incredibly, to 0.194 after a blood sample was taken.
So how to explain how and why the then 70-year-old got behind the wheel when he was so obviously intoxicated, hit and killed a pedestrian, fled the scene and then led police on a pursuit?
The prosecution case was that he was drunk.
Ken Grant's case was that he was sleepwalking, the rarely used defence of automatism, namely somnambulism, and the judge-alone trial in Newcastle District Court this month focused on whether or not Ken Grant's driving on the night of the hit-and-run was voluntary.
At the outset, defence barrister Phillip Boulten, SC, said Ken Grant had a history of sleepwalking that has involved "very complex motor skills" and the trial heard from experts in neurology, gerontology, neuropsychology and a sleep expert.
The problem for Ken Grant was the evidence that he had actually fallen asleep, let alone been sleepwalking, was "scant", Judge John Hatzistergos said in a judgment on Friday.
For a person to reach a somnambulistic state, deep sleep is required and there just wasn't the time between Ken Grant possibly "nodding off" and the hit-and-run.
Judge Hatzistergos said there was "no reasonable possibility" Ken Grant was sleepwalking and the driving and memory loss could be explained by his alcohol consumption.
He found Ken Grant was conscious and acting voluntarily and was guilty of all charges. He will be sentenced in February.