Northern Territory man to a shockingly minimal 12-month community corrections order (CCO) on September 15 after having run down two Aboriginal men outside a Garramilla/Darwin shopping mall, killing one and seriously injuring the other last year.
The NT Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has since filed to appeal the inadequacy of the sentence.
Danby hit the two men in a 60 kilometre per hour zone in front of the Hibiscus Shopping Centre in the northern Darwin suburb of Leanyer on June 13 last year. The 24-year-old , taking off in his car, leaving 39-year-old Kunwinjku man Mr Whitehurst dead on the roadside, along with his seriously injured 37-year-old First Nations companion.
The driver texted his friends, following the fatal incident, that “Danbys like him don’t go to jail”. He described the people he had just mown down as “dogs” and “oxygen thieves”. He described the incident as a “.
NT Supreme Court Justice Sonia Brownhill said Danby’s texts were “disgusting”, before handing him a 12-month community corrections order and five months home detention.
The NT DPP filed to on September 19, a development spurred by the announcement earlier that day that Danby is the NT attorney general’s nephew.
The “punishment” came as calls on the federal government intervene to stop the NT Country Liberal Party’s extreme law-and-order push, which is locking up more First People, including children as young as 10.
The offense of can carry up to 10 years’ imprisonment, but Danby received a CCO and home detention. He will appear in Darwin Local Court on October 1 on other offences, including speeding, driving an unregistered vehicle, driving an uninsured vehicle and driving unlicensed.
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chair Theresa Roe that Danby’s sentence highlights the inequality in NT law. First People experience different responses, she said, which has only been exacerbated by the CLP’s law-and-order drive, which is leading to every day.
Following Danby’s release, Mr Whitehurst’s sister said if an Aboriginal man had fatally hit a white man with his car and taken off, the driver would have been locked up.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics custody figures for the June quarter, 2482 Aboriginal adults are being held in NT prisons, of the overall adult prisoner population in the NT. The number of First Nations children jailed in the NT has consistently beenmore than for years.
University of Technology Sydney Professor : “There is a serious problem in the Northern Territory with Aboriginal lives on roads” and “the courts aren’t responding adequately”. She warned “there is clearly a perception being formed that if you harm an Aboriginal person on the road, there will not be serious consequences”.
, the stepson of her sister, it was revealed by the NT Independent on September 19. Asked by reporters to comment on the sentencing outcome a day before this became public, Clare-Boothby failed to disclose her relationship.
The NT Independent also revealed that NT Chief Minister that Clare-Boothby’s step-nephew had run down and killed a man when she and Clare-Boothby were in the opposition.
Another issue is how seriously Brownhill had weighed Danby’s bragging text messages beyond saying they were “disgusting”, given she concluded he had shown remorse and expressed insight into his wrongdoing.
The Finocchiaro government five tough-on-crime bills introduced on its second sitting day.
They include a crackdown on bail, which involved reinstating youth breach of bail, and an expansion of offences that trigger a presumption against bail. This has led to a spike in adults and youths being held on remand.
The CLP is voting in policies that criminalise poverty, including banning people on public transport. It wants to turn bus and housing estate inspectors into pseudo-police, armed with guns. These people are also set to be deployed to shopping malls.
The NT has just started a pepper spray trial, which involves members of the public being able to purchase quantities of the non-lethal weapon to “defend” themselves.
Finocchiaro is also determined to cut funding to the in the wake of the release of the damning coronial findings into the death of Warlpiri Luritja teenager Kumanjayi Walker. The coroner said the NT police had all the hallmarks of a racist institution. Various NT land councils said to keep their communities safe.