International student is killed on Australian street after kneeling in the middle of the road to ‘pray’

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1h ago

By ALASDAIR BELLING 02:46 12 Oct 2026, updated 02:50 12 Oct 2026

A young driver has avoided jail time for a hit-and-run that killed a woman who was kneeling in the middle of a road appearing to pray.

Ashton Friend, 20, had previously pleaded guilty to causing death by careless use of a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident after he struck and killed international student Samia Malik with his car on North East Road in Hillcrest, Adelaide on May 6, 2025.

The South Australian District Court previously heard Malik had been kneeling for four minutes in the middle of the road before she was hit by Friend’s car at about 11pm.

Judge Anne Barnett said CCTV vision showed Malik’s hands were in what looked like a ‘praying motion’ in the moments leading up to her death.

Friend had been driving home from his girlfriend’s house when he struck Malik. The court heard that he was ‘at a loss’ as to what had happened, which was why he failed to stop.

‘He hadn’t been aware that there was something on the road. He heard this noise,’ defence barrister Jane Abbey KC submitted to the court in September.

‘What he hoped was that it had been an animal, or something like that.’

Abbey also submitted that due to the limited damage sustained by his car, Friend assumed he hadn’t struck a person.

‘He was checking his rear vision, but he did not see her – he should have,’ she said.

‘Initially, he just did not realise he had hit a person.’

The court heard that Friend realised what had happened when he saw news reports about Malik’s death which sent him into a ‘state of paralysis’.

He was identified by police a week later and arrested.

‘He just could not reconcile what he had done’, Abbey said.

The court heard that Friend was not affected by drugs or alcohol and was not speeding when he struck Malik.

In an apology read to the victim’s family, Friend said he could ‘only imagine the indescribable pain’ they were feeling.

‘I will have to carry my failures with me for as long as I live,’ he said.

‘I am deeply sorry for the life that was lost, the grief and the trauma caused to Samia’s family and loved ones.

‘There is no excuse for my actions, or my failure to act — and I should have acted. I do not place responsibility on anyone else; it is mine alone.

‘I take full responsibility for my actions and their consequences. I stand before this court with genuine remorse and a commitment to reflect on, learn from and be accountable for what I have done.’

In a victim impact statement read aloud by prosecutor Frank Niemann, Malik’s sister Qudisya Malik told told the court that grief had become a part of her everyday life.

‘There are moments where the pain feels just as fresh as it did on the day we lost her’, the statement said.

‘Every important milestone reminds us that someone deeply loved is missing. There is always an empty place where Samia should have been.

‘Nothing can ever replace Samia. We have lost a daughter, a sister, a friend and a remarkable young woman who had so much life ahead of her.

‘Samia will always remain part of our family. She may no longer be physically with us, but she continues to live on in our hearts.’

Niemann noted that other drivers had swerved around Malik in the lead up to her death.

It was also submitted that a police car travelling some distance behind Friend had the time to stop and pull over without hitting Malik.

Niemann also emphasised that Friend had not turned himself in to police despite realising he had been the driver that killed Malik. Instead, it took some ‘impressive police work’ to track him down.

Judge Barnett served Friend a suspended sentence of one year, three months and 29 days with a non-parole period of eight months, with a bond to be of good behaviour for two years.

There has never been a full explanation for why Malik was on the road the night she was killed.

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