AFL’s Darren Collins who strangled woman will not have his sentence extended

A court ruled that Darren Collins’ non-parole period will not be extended
He was sentenced to life after being found guilty of strangling a woman
Collins’ claimed Jacqueline Franklin wanted to be choked during a sex act
The mother-of-five’s remains were found buried in a shallow grave in 2013
Ms Franklin’s aunt said she hoped Collins would ‘rot in hell’ outside court

Daniel Peters

and
Belinda Grant Geary For Daily Mail Australia

and
Aap

Published:
05:19 GMT, 24 November 2015

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Updated:
05:57 GMT, 24 November 2015

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A South Australian court has decided not to extend the jail sentence of a man who strangled a mother-of-five with a belt before he ‘callously’ buried her in a shallow grave.

Darren Michael Collins, a former-AFL-listed player, was jailed for life with a non-parole period of 20 years in March this year after he was found guilty of the 2013 murder of Jacqueline Franklin.

But his case returned to the South Australian Supreme Court on Tuesday to consider if his non-parole period should be extended given the extent of his criminal behaviour around the time of the killing.

Collins’ non-parole period was not extended as the severity his other crimes were not as serious in nature

Justice Michael David ruled against making the change as the severity his other crimes were not as serious in nature.

Mr Collins, 37, played representative football until he was drafted to play for Hawthorn in 1996.

But despite being recruited to the Hawks, Collins was never given the call up to participate in a senior AFL match and returned to Adelaide shortly after.

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During his trial, he claimed he accidentally killed Ms Franklin, who he met only days before, after she asked him to hold a seat belt around her neck as she performed an erotic sex act – a claim the jury rejected.

Ms Franklin’s remains were found two months after her death, buried in a shallow grave in the yard of an empty house in Stansbury on the Yorke Peninsula.

The mother-of-five’s teeth were chipped and she had sustained significant injuries to her jaw and throat, which Supreme Court Justice Ann Vanstone believed were inflicted before her death, the ABC reported.

Darren Michael Collins claimed he accidentally killed Jacqueline Franklin after she asked him to hold a seat belt around her neck as she performed an erotic sex act on her

A neighbour contacted the police after spotting Mr Collins acting suspiciously in the vacant yard, and he was arrested and charged a short time later.

The court heard that Ms Franklin and Collins had a ‘mutual interest’ in drugs, with the former AFL player claiming to have used amphetamines since he was 13-years-old.

He claimed Ms Franklin asked him to asphyxiate her with the belt as she masturbated and only realised she was dead after noticing her ‘tongue was hanging out’, according to the ABC.

‘She stopped moving so I thought she had just finished and climaxed… then I looked around the seat and I realised she wasn’t very well,’ he told the court.

Upon realising she was dead, Collins said started to panic as Ms Franklin’s former partner was a senior bikie and he feared retribution for the murder.

Collins claimed Ms Franklin asked him to asphyxiate her with the seat belt as she masturbated and only realised she was dead after noticing her ‘tongue was hanging out’

‘I wasn’t rationally thinking at that stage, I wasn’t thinking like a normal person. I was thinking I was going to get hurt and my family was going to get hurt,’ he told the court.

Justice Vanstone refuted Collins’ recollection of events, stating that she believed his story had been concocted after her death and called the circumstances around her burial ‘callous’, according to ABC reports.

‘The fact that the killing was so needless and brutal makes it even harder for those people [who loved her] to deal with,’ she said.

She sentenced him to life in prison, with a non-parole period of 20 years.

According to the ABC, Ms Franklin’s devastated aunt Isobel Cooper said losing Ms Franklin ‘broke’ her spirit and continued to haunt her.

‘I will live with this heartache for the rest of my life,’ Ms Cooper said in March.

She said Collins should ‘rot in hell’ for his ‘unforgivable’ actions, which robbed five ‘beautiful’ sons of their loving mother.

‘She’s not going to be able to see them get married, nothing.’

‘And this bastard in there did nothing but degrade my niece with a load of bullshit.’

Collins will be eligible for parole in 2033.

Justice Vanstone refuted Collins’ recollection of events, stating that she believed his story had been concocted after her death and called the circumstances around her burial ‘callous’