Christine Quigley remembers the scene only too well.

A hand poking out from under a white sheet belonged to her niece, Carley Regan, 13.

Carley was dead, killed by hit and run driver Paul Thomas Wettlaufer.

It was early evening on Jan. 6, 2003, when Carley was rollerblading along 36 Avenue, east of 256 Street, with her sister Jessica, 11, and a friend, Raelene Campbell, 10, who were cycling.

Wettlaufer was driving a 1988 Dodge Daytona when he struck the girls. Carley died within minutes, and her sister and friend escaped serious injury. Wettlaufer drove on, then returned to the scene. He got out of his car and, according to the judge at his sentencing, observed others helping Carley. He then left the scene a second time.

At the time of the crime, Wettlaufer was prohibited from driving.

He pleaded guilty to hit and run and to driving without a licence.

In sentencing Wettlaufer to one year in jail, the judge called Wettlaufer "an insensitive coward."

He also suspended Wettlaufer's driver's licence for 10 years.

Wettlaufer wants his licence back now.

On Monday, Wettlaufer will be back in Surrey Provincial Court for a hearing into his application to have his licence reinstated four years prematurely.

For Carley's family, the news has restored the raw edge of grief.

"We are in utter shock," Quigley said.

"If you are given 10 years, it should be 10 years."

"I'm disgusted that he even has the gall to do this," she added.

"We have to live without a daughter, a niece, a sister, a granddaughter and a cousin for a lifetime."

In her impact statement, Carley's mother, Evelyn, described her daughter as an artist and an athlete who loved the outdoors, biking, hiking and swimming.

Carley would be 19 now, and Wettlaufer took away all the family's hopes for her.

"She would be driving now, maybe going to university," Quigley noted, adding that Evelyn tries to cope "by taking it one day at a time.

"But no one forgets."