Hit-and-Run Horror: Aboriginal Communities Rage Against ‘Lenient’ Sentence for Driver Who Left Young Man for Dead
- Fury erupts in NT Aboriginal communities as hit-and-run driver Jake Danby avoids prison time, sparking claims of racism and a ‘two-tier’ justice system
- Danby, 24, ran down and killed Elijah Whitehurst, 28, near a Darwin shopping centre, then sent vile texts calling the victim an ‘oxygen thief’ and ‘dog’
- The case has exposed huge disparities in the NT’s justice system, with Aboriginal leaders demanding answers over the government’s ‘double standards’
- Elijah’s family are calling for justice and demanding jail time for Danby, saying ‘it’s not fair’ that he’s out of prison while they’re left to grieve
Toni Whitehurst still hears the creak of her gate at night, imagining her brother Elijah walking into the house to give her a hug. But he’s gone, left for dead on a Darwin road by a driver who didn’t stop to help. The family of the young Aboriginal man killed in the hit-and-run are demanding justice and calling for jail time for the offender, Jake Danby.
“I need justice, I really need that,” Toni said, her voice cracking with emotion. “Because it’s not fair that I’m going to bury my brother, and he’s out of prison.” Elijah was a hardworking young man from a remote community, who was looking after his nieces and nephews and working at the local meatworks. He was a good, humble man, his sister said.
But Danby’s actions that night were anything but humble. He ran down Elijah and another pedestrian near the Hibiscus shopping centre, then fled the scene, leaving them for dead. Elijah was flung 7 metres and suffered a fatal traumatic brain injury. Danby’s texts to his friends afterwards were vile, calling Elijah an ‘oxygen thief’ and ‘dog’.
The case has sparked outrage across the NT’s Aboriginal communities, with many claiming that the sentence was lenient and that the justice system is stacked against them. “This government has double standards,” said Northern Land Council chair Matt Ryan. “It has one rule for Aboriginal people, and another rule for non-Aboriginal people.”
NAAJA chief executive Ben Grimes said that the case had exposed huge disparities in the NT’s justice system. “Home detention is a really good example,” he said. “In the Danby case, he was given a period of home detention. But for many Aboriginal defendants, such options for leniency are taken away from them before they even start.”
The NT government has been accused of staying silent on Danby’s case, while being outspoken on others affecting non-Indigenous victims. “Our people are not happy about this, I am not happy,” said Independent Arnhem Land politician Yingiya Guyula. “There’s no justice in this … the government should have called out louder and louder that Jake Danby should’ve been sent to prison.”
The NT’s Director of Public Prosecutions is now appealing Danby’s sentence on the grounds that it is “manifestly inadequate”. The case has also raised questions about the NT government’s response to crime and its repeated calls for “real consequences” for offenders.
In a shocking twist, it was revealed that Danby was a relative of NT Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby, who only publicly disclosed the link after it was raised in media reports. Ms Boothby has been criticised for answering questions about Danby’s sentence at a press conference without first disclosing that he was her sister’s stepson.
“There needs to be some kind of investigation into what the Attorney-General said in this process, what happened when [Mr Whitehurst] was killed,” Mr Guyula said. The NT government has refused to comment further on the case, saying only that it is “before the courts”.