Mother-of-two Marija Karovska was run over in the driveway of her family’s Mirrabooka home in February last year.
Camera IconMother-of-two Marija Karovska was run over in the driveway of her family’s Mirrabooka home in February last year. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Car thief who murdered Perth mum jailed

AAPEastern Reporter

A MAN who murdered a woman in Perth by reversing over her as she tried to stop him stealing her son’s car has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years.

Mother-of-two Marija Karovska, 51, was run over in the driveway of her family’s Mirrabooka home in February last year after she went to the front yard to search her Toyota for her wallet, which Micheal Spratt, 27, had earlier stolen from inside the house.

She saw him about to drive off in her son Daniel’s Subaru, slapped on the side windows, screaming, then stood behind the vehicle and banged her hand on the boot.

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The commotion drew Ms Karovska’s daughter Dijana, then Daniel, outside.

Dijana testified at Spratt’s Supreme Court of WA trial in June that she saw the car “crunch into gear” then jolt back, knocking her mother down.

Spratt drove forward then reversed again, driving over Ms Karovska.

Daniel got into the car via the rear passenger door and repeatedly punched Spratt while holding him in a headlock as Dijana shouted “you’ve run over my mum”.

After Spratt got out of the car and ran off, Daniel drove the low-slung vehicle forward as his heavy-set mother was trapped underneath, running over her again.

Dijana testified there was “no way” they could have pulled her out.

Spratt claimed he wasn’t aware someone was behind the car, which Justice Joseph McGrath did not accept.

“Your only concern was to steal the vehicle and make a getaway as soon as possible,” Justice McGrath said on Friday.

Spratt unleashed an angry outburst when the jury handed down its guilty verdict, pulling off his shirt, throwing it into the public gallery, repeatedly shouting “racist c****” and yelling he was going to appeal, but he was subdued when he heard his jail term.

He was also handed concurrent sentences for a string of other separate offences including abducting someone he’d burgled at knifepoint and forcing them to drive to an ATM to withdraw cash.