Kayak drowning victim Vogue Elers' family appeal for drunken guide to have ... trends now
A devastated family has failed to get a longer jail term for the drunk woman who allowed their four-year-old to drown in a kayaking tragedy just over two years ago.
Tamarah Eaton was handed a 30-month jail term, with an 18-month non-parole period, in December over the death of Vogue Elers in June 2021.
Eaton, 36, pleaded guilty to aggravated culpable navigation causing the girl's death in the Karuah River off Mallabula Point, north of Newcastle.
Crown prosecutors appealed the lightness of the sentence last month, but on Wednesday Sydney's Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed their case, leaving Vogue's parents, Brooke and Ricky Elers, in 'shock and disbelief'.
'We are the ones who will continue to suffer,' they said in a statement as they labelled the decision 'unbelievable and disappointing'.
Vogue Elers drowned in a horrific kayaking tragedy at just four years of age in June 2021
'This is not justice. This is a legal system that favours offenders and in our case has handed me, my husband, plus our extended family and friends and a whole community with a life sentence.
'This is so wrong.'
On the day of the tragedy, Eaton was serving a 10-month intensive corrections order after being convicted of a high-range drink-driving offence.
Just hours before taking Vogue and her dog out to go fishing in the one-person kayak, Eaton, who was a friend of the family, had already consumed a bottle of vodka.
She was carrying a green Tupperware bottle that also contained vodka and did
