Miscarriage Of Justice?

A Queensland mother lost her baby just days before she was due to give birth. The person responsible was a reckless drunk driver, but even the judge admitted there was no clear path to bring him to justice. Genevieve Gannon investigates one of the most fiercely fought and intensely personal legal battles of our time.

- Genevieve Gannon

It was a Friday night after a busy week and Sarah Milosevic was experiencing the same tumult of emotions she remembered from her first pregnancy – fatigue, excitement and anticipation. She was nine months pregnant and scheduled for an induction the following Monday. She needed to rest, but her 18-month-old daughter, Jorja, wouldn’t settle, so Sarah decided to put her grizzling toddler in her car seat in the hope that the driving motion would soothe her. It was just three sleeps until Sarah would give birth, and her baby – another girl – had engaged.

“I had all her clothes washed and in the drawer. Her bed was made,” Sarah says. “I’d already scrubbed the house twice, as you do. Everything was done. We had the bassinet that’s been in the family since my aunt was a newborn. It was a family heirloom.”

On that night, August 29, 2014, Sarah strapped baby Jorja into the back seat next to her husband Peter’s son Nicholas, then 13, and got into the passenger seat. Peter was going to drive them to her parents’ house, which was not far from their own home in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley. It was 7.45pm and the roads were quiet. The Milosevics pulled up to a set of traffic lights where Peter checked before making a turn.

“The intersection was completely clear,” says Sarah. “Something made me turn around.” She saw a car coming towards them. “I said to Peter, ‘He’s going to hit us.’” The vehicle slammed into one side, T-boning the family wagon and jolting the five beating hearts inside.