Judith Hutchinson sat through just 15 minutes of Benjamin "Monty" Robinson's testimony on Tuesday morning (Feb. 21) before she had to leave the court room.
"I'm not able to listen to much of this," she told media outside New Westminster Supreme Court. "I never, ever will let myself listen to, or know, the details."
Her son, Orion Hutchinson, 21, was killed on Oct. 25, 2008 when his motorcycle collided with Robinson's Jeep at the corner of Gilchrist Dr. and 6th Ave. in Tsawwassen.
Robinson, an RCMP corporal, is now facing an obstruction of justice charge in relation to the crash. After the accident, he gave his driver's licence to a bystander and left the scene to walk his two children home.
Upon his return, he told police he had downed two shots of vodka at home to calm his nerves.
Almost three and a half years later, the pain of losing a loved one has not subsided for the Hutchinson family.
"I've lost my only son. My daughter has lost her only brother," said Judith. "We've always maintained, since the very beginning, that the true crime here is the utter lack of responsibility and basic humanity shown by the accused at the scene."
This morning, the court heard that Robinson, although trained in first aid as an RCMP officer, did not offer any medical help to the motorcyclist at the accident scene. He instead opted to immediately take his children away from the area.
"There has never been an apology, either directly or indirectly, by word or writing or anything up until this point. So at this point it would mean less than nothing," Judith said.
Robinson's defence claims he had "severe" alcohol dependency at the time of the collision and that he has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since being implicated in the tasering death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekański at Vancouver International Airport in Oct. 2007.
An expert in addictions medicine testified Robinson's use of alcohol after the accident was consistent with the type of behaviour seen in men who have alcohol dependency.
Robinson denied that he drank vodka after the collision intending to impede the investigation, but the Crown argues that, as an RCMP officer, he would have known his actions would have affected the accuracy of his breath samples at the time of the crash.
The prosecution and defence have both finished calling witnesses and are expected to present their closing arguments tomorrow (Feb. 22) morning.