Pakistani student killed while ‘praying’ on road, driver avoids jail in Australia

A 20-year-old driver in Australia has avoided jail after hitting and killing an international student who was kneeling in the middle of a road with her hands in what appeared to be a praying motion, before leaving the scene of the accident.Ashton Friend, from Banksia Park, had pleaded guilty to causing death by careless use of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident following the death of 20-year-old Samia Malik on North East Road in Hillcrest, Adelaide, on May 6, 2025.The South Australian District Court heard that Malik had been kneeling in the middle of the road for around four minutes before Friend's car struck her at about 11pm. CCTV footage showed her hands in what appeared to be a "praying motion", Judge Anne Barnett said while sentencing Friend on Tuesday. No explanation has been provided for why Malik was on the road.Friend was driving home from his girlfriend's house when the collision occurred. According to his defence barrister, Jane Abbey KC, he had not seen Malik and did not realise he had hit a person."He was absolutely at a loss about what had just happened. He hadn't been aware that there was something on the road. He heard this noise," Abbey told the court. "What he hoped was that it had been an animal, or something like that."Abbey said the relatively limited damage to Friend's car had contributed to his failure to realise that he had struck someone. He later learnt about Malik's death through news reports and was left in a "state of paralysis", the court heard.Friend had previously expressed remorse for his actions in an apology to the court, saying: "I will have to carry my failures with me for as long as I live."Judge Barnett sentenced him to one year, three months and 29 days in prison, with a non-parole period of eight months. However, the sentence was suspended after Friend entered a bond requiring him to be of good behaviour for two years, allowing him to avoid immediate imprisonment.Malik was an international student studying in Australia, with her family in Pakistan.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.