Warning: This content is distressing and contains the names of Aboriginal people who have passed away.
TRANSCRIPT
The Northern Territory government has been accused of misconduct after a shocking turn of events that gets to the heart of longstanding issues affecting First Nations communities within the Territory's criminal justice system.
The backlash involves the sentencing of a 24-year-old driver, Jake Danby who fatally struck an Aboriginal man in a hit and run in 2024 and seriously injured another.
The sentence - a 12-month community corrections order that keeps the offender out of prison - has outraged First Nations communities in the Territory.
Mililma May, campaign and advocacy manager for Change the Record - a First Nations-led justice coalition - says she sees the sentence as a symptom of a larger problem in the NT's institutions.
"They operate with one set of rules for Aboriginal people and another set of rules for everyone else. When a police officer can fire three shots at Kumanjayi Walker and be acquitted, or when the family of Kumanjayi White waits in anguish to see whether the charges will even be laid for the death of their grandson - but then we see a non-Aboriginal man who kills an Aboriginal man and doesn't end up with a sentence. It reinforces our absolute distrust in these institutions."
According to text messages shown in court, after striking the two Aboriginal pedestrians with his car and fleeing the scene, Mr Danby boasted about the incident to friends.
He wrote that it was, as he put it, "pretty funny watching them roll around on the road after going over my bonnet" and described the crash as a "two for one combo".
He referred to the victims using the N word - as well as calling them "dogs" and "oxygen thieves".
Matthew Connop deputy chief executive officer of the North Australia Aboriginal Justice Agency, or NAAJA, says these comments are shocking and racist.
"In terms of this case, it demonstrates the broader systemic issues that exist in the Northern Territory. You look at the comments and the language used by the offender, the racist comments and dehumanising comments. It's a total disregard for human life."
Handing down the sentence, NT Supreme Court Justice Sonia Brownhill said "the degree of callousness and disdain expressed in those text messages for two other human beings... is difficult to fathom".
Speaking outside the court after the sentencing, Jake Danby told the ABC he regrets his actions, including these text messages.
REPORTER: "Do you feel remorse for what happened?"
DANBY: "Yes."
REPORTER: "What do you think about the judge's verdict today?"
DANBY: "It's her choice. It's not mine."
REPORTER: " What do you think about those text messages you sent at the time?"
DANBY: "Disgusting."
REPORTER: " You now wish you hadn't sent them?"
DANBY: "Yep."
REPORTER: "Do you want to say anything to the family of those who were injured and the man who died?"
DANBY: "It was an accident. I'm extremely sorry. Never meant to hurt anyone."
NT prosecutors have filed an appeal, saying the 12-month community corrections order is "manifestly inadequate".
The Attorney-General for the NT, Marie-Clare Boothby, who has championed the Country Liberal Party government's 'tough on crime' approach, was criticised for not pushing for harsher penalties for the offender.
It has since emerged that Ms Boothby had not publicly disclosed her family connection to Danby, who is her sister's stepson.
The NT Independent reported on the connection, a week after Ms Boothby had spoken at a press conference on whether she believed the sentence was adequate.
The court heard that in one text following the fatal crime, Mr Danby said, "I ain’t getting jail time. I’m a Danby, we don’t go to jail”.
Ms Boothby has defended her decision to not publicly reveal this conflict of interest, saying she told Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro last year.
BOOTHBY: "So I declared that case back when we were in opposition to the opposition leader at the time. I've never tried to hide away from it, and my office and myself have never been involved in that incident."
REPORTER: "Why didn't both of you then make it public?"
BOOTHBY: "So we were in opposition at the time and I disclosed it. So the due process was followed. I take my job really seriously and I do it with the utmost of integrity and I will continue to do that."
NT Opposition leader and former NT Attorney General Selena Uibo has called on the Attorney-General to resign.
"It has been five days since the Attorney General Marie-Clare Boothby has been caught out with the CLP government in hiding a huge conflict of interest, five days of silence, five days of coverup, and five days of lack of leadership. From Lia Finocchiaro, the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley. Marie Claire Boothe's integrity is in tatters. She should resign as the Attorney General, the first law officer of the Northern Territory if there is any hope to restore integrity with the CLP government."
Mililma May of Stop the Record says she believes Ms Boothby's family connection played a role in the treatment of Mr Danby, despite the Attorney General's claims.
"It speaks to how the breach of the rule of law, which is meant to treat everyone equally before the law. And how if you know people in certain positions and if you have a certain colour skin, you can be absolved of consequences for your violent actions. Because if the roles were reversed, there is no way that an Aboriginal man who has hit and run and killed a pedestrian would be walking free in community with a community order."
Matthew Connop from NAAJA says the community feels that justice has not been served for the victims of the crash.
"There's been a deep hurt and anger across the Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. NAAJA has been contacted by many Aboriginal people who have said that the sentence did not reflect the seriousness of the offending, nor did it value the life that was lost."
The case has also shone a spotlight on the huge disparity in incarceration rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents in the NT.
2018 data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Indigenous Australians make up 84 per cent of the Territory's prisoner population, despite representing just 30 per cent of the population.
Since the Country Liberal Party came to power in August 2024, a significant jump in the Indigenous prison population has been recorded.
The latest ABS report on Corrective Services shows Aboriginal incarceration has grown 25 per cent in the N-T over the last year - from 3,678 people per 100,000 in the June quarter of 2024 to 4,603 in June 2025.
Many advocates attribute the overrepresentation of First Nations men, women and children in prisons and detention centres in the N-T to double standards applied by police, courts and successive governments to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents.
"If we had equal laws and equal treatment under the law, our prisons would have about 30 per cent blackfellas. However, we know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children make up sometimes above 90 per cent of the populations in Don Dale Detention Centre. This is not because our children are criminal and more violent, this is because they are disproportionately targeted by the police. And this is enabled by the agendas put forward by Lia Finocchiaro and her Country Liberal Party government."
Advocates say this case should provide an opportunity to focus on the big picture of reducing harm to Aboriginal communities and working toward equitable outcomes in the justice system.
Ms May says she wants to see funding directed to programs that uplift and empower First Nations youth and help communities heal from generations of trauma.
"We want programs invested in kids on country. We want programs of justice, not jails. We want programs that centre language and culture and bringing multiple generations of people together to repair relationships within families and within communities. All of this work is already happening. It's already happening on the ground, it's happening across the country. These programs exist and need to be funded. All of these solutions have been presented time and time again. They just need the governments to have the courage to implement back them and support them wholeheartedly with all Aboriginal and toss Strait Islander leadership."
