Bodybuilder facing life in chair

Lynette Kilmartin has been told she'll probably never walk again.

But the man who hit her with his Ford Laser and drove off is allowed to continue with his provincial hockey career.

Prasant Nathoo, 23, is on bail awaiting sentencing next month after pleading guilty to reckless driving causing injury and failing to stop after a crash to see if anyone was injured.

The November 20 hit-and-run happened on Ponsonby Rd in Central Auckland 10 minutes after the 23-year-old had attacked a 43-year-old prostitute.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of injuring the prostitute with intent.

The last thing Ms Kilmartin, 36, remembers is getting out of a taxi about 4.20am, after spending the night with friends, before Nathoo's speeding car crashed into her, throwing her several metres down the road and knocking her unconscious.

The vehicle was found abandoned in Herne Bay later that morning and Nathoo was located at a North Shore address and arrested.

Ms Kilmartin's leg was almost severed from the knee down. She also suffered head and shoulder injuries. She spent two months in hospital and has been in and out ever since, undergoing five operations.
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Her leg is still bandaged and doctors have told her she may spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Ms Kilmartin had moved to Auckland from Wellington only three weeks before the accident to start a new job as a sales representative for L'Oreal.

The life she lives now is a far cry from how she was living in Wellington, where she taught aerobics at Les Mills for 16 years and competed in several body-building competitions.

She is living off ACC payments as she is unable to work.

"Do you know how perfect I was? And now I have a bit of a leg."

She still hopes to compete at the end of the year but will have to stand on one leg while lifting weights.

Nathoo, a North Shore service station forecourt attendant, played for the lower North Island side the Central Mavericks in last year's national hockey league but is this season representing the men's Albany Birkenhead Collegians team.

His lawyer, Geoff Anderson, said he did not believe his bail conditions prevented him from playing. "He is not in breach of bail, otherwise the police would have arrested him."

Ms Kilmartin said she has never met or spoken to Nathoo but his mother visited her in hospital.

"She didn't want her son to go to jail. I said 'I'm not putting him there, he's put himself there'."

Source:www.nzherald.co.nz

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