Remember me
The learner driver allegedly at the wheel of the car which killed a man when it mowed down pedestrians outside Melbourne's Supanova Comic Con once had the world at his feet.
Awer Dau - known as Dua - was born in war-ravaged South Sudan in the early 1990s and thrust into a nightmare of violence and upheaval from the moment he could walk.
But on Saturday, police allege he drove his car onto the kerb outside the Ascot Vale event, killing a man, 20, from Keysborough, as well as hitting another man, also 20, and leaving him with 'significant lower body injuries'.
Dua, 33, from Yarraville, was on bail at the time of the tragedy, and was charged with dangerous driving causing death and culpable driving.
He fronted the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Sunday where Magistrate Jarrod Williams remanded him in custody until September.
Daily Mail can reveal Dua's troubled life and upbringing was previously laid bare in the County Court of Victoria in 2020.
The court heard Dua fled the Sudanese civil war with his mother and siblings when he was aged just three, escaping across the border into Kenya where they endured six years in a refugee camp.
His father was left behind in South Sudan to care for elderly relatives and has never been reunited with the family.
Awer Dau (right) after he allegedly ran down people leaving the Supanova event
The incident happened at the Melbourne Showgrounds in Ascot Vale, killing one and seriously injuring another
The grey Toyota is understood to have mounted a curb where three men were standing outside the Supanova Comic Con and Gaming event at the Melbourne Showgrounds, on Saturday
Judge Rosemary Carlin was told Dua had been exposed to serious violence and conflict during his early years in South Sudan and the Kenyan refugee camp.
At the age of ten, Dua and his family were finally granted refugee status and flown to Australia, where they settled in Melbourne's western suburbs and joined an older brother already building a new life there.
He attended local schools, managed to complete most of Year 12, and later finished a two-year VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) program in automotive engineering that qualified him as a mechanic.
Dua showed exceptional sporting ability, earning selection into the prestigious Victorian Institute of Sport and a potential glittering career in professional soccer.
But crushing family pressures forced the promising young athlete to abandon the sport and find work.
For the next five years he worked in manual labour - at an abattoir, as a forklift driver in a cold storage warehouse, and later as a licensed security officer.
Colleagues knew him as a self-motivated, productive and responsible young man who still found time to play competitive soccer while helping support his mother and a younger brother who was studying.
The tight-knit family stayed close, with Dua caring for his mother even when he lived outside the home.
Awer Dau is accused of driving this car into people as they left the Supanova event
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Heartbreak struck in 2017 when the older brother who had first welcomed him to Australia died, aged just 48.
The court heard Dua was shot in the leg during a street fight the following year and hospitalised for about 11 days.
The court heard Dua enjoyed strong support from his family, with the judge satisfied he could turn his life around if he continued to deal with his mental health issues.
On Monday, stunned Supanova attendees continued to express their dismay over the tragic incident.
Detectives revealed Dua was an unlicensed learner driver who was 'very well known to police'.
Witnesses reported seeing a car swerving across several lanes of traffic before mounting the footpath and hitting the men just before 5pm on Saturday.
The car continued along the footpath before the driver was apprehended by an off-duty police officer and another person in a citizen’s arrest.
Major Collision Investigation Unit Detective Inspector Craig McEvoy said police were investigating whether the incident was intentional, as well as whether speed, alcohol or drugs were involved.