‘A daily struggle’: Driver who paralysed cyclist in collision given suspended sentence

A cyclist who will never use his legs again has pleaded with drivers to keep their hands off their phones when behind the wheel.

Graham Walters was paralysed after being struck by a four-wheel drive while cycling, and spent seven months in hospital.

The woman who struck him, child care worker Katherine Roche, was reaching over to put her phone on loudspeaker.

The mother of four was sentenced to two and a half years jail, wholly suspended.

The judge told her that "a few seconds of distraction" was all it took to destroy Mr Walters' life as he knew it.

"It's a struggle every day," Mr Walters said.

"I am looking for that light at the end of the tunnel.

"I don't know who I am going to wake up with every day - me, or the grump man who is full of hatred and anger."

The judge told the court that drivers were distracted by their phones every day, and that all drivers were potential killers.

Mr Walters hopes his story can serve as a lesson for those drivers.

"We all hear about those who are killed but we never hear about those are left the way we are," he said.