The Northern Territory’s attorney general, Marie-Clare Boothby, has faced criticism after confirming she is related to a man who was spared prison last week over a hit-and-run car crash that killed an Aboriginal man.
Jack Danby, 24, was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order in relation to the crash in June 2024. Danby hit two Aboriginal pedestrians, killing one, and fled the scene.
He then boasted about the incident to friends, according to text messages tendered in court.
Danby wrote that it was “pretty funny watching them roll around on the road after going over my bonnet” and described the crash as a “two for one combo”.
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He also referred to the victims as “dogs” and “oxygen thieves”.
Prosecutors are now appealing Danby’s sentence as “inadequate”.
The situation has prompted significant anger at “inequality” in the justice system, and criticism of the Country Liberal government over “inconsistencies” in the way it publicly responds to criminal cases.
Boothby – an architect of Country Liberal party’s hardline crime policies that promised “real consequences” for offenders – was criticised last week for not taking a strong position on Danby’s case.
On Thursday, the NT Independent revealed that Danby was Boothby’s sister’s son-in-law. She has since confirmed the relationship.
Boothby told the ABC she had previously informed the chief minister, Lia Finnochiaro, that Danby was her sister’s son-in-law.
“I have never attempted to hide the fact that the driver was an extended family member,” Boothby said.
“At no time have I or my office been involved in the matter, either in opposition or upon change of government.
“At all times I have acted with integrity in carrying out my functions as attorney general.”
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency says the government has been “quick to comment in cases involving Aboriginal offenders and non-Aboriginal victims”.
“Their silence on this matter sends a message about the value that the NT government places on the experiences of Aboriginal victims,” the Naaja chair, Theresa Roe, said.
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“The fault lines in our community and our justice system run deep.”
Roe said the “racist, dehumanising language used by the offender is a stark reminder of the racism that many Aboriginal people experience in their day to day lives”.
“This case highlights the inequality between the experiences of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Territorians in the NT justice system, and the immense advantages experienced by many non-Aboriginal people in the NT legal system,” Roe said.
“Aboriginal people and families increasingly feel as though the justice system does not equally protect them.”
The DPP has confirmed it will now appeal against the sentence on the basis it is “manifestly inadequate”.
Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory are 15 times more likely to be killed by a car than pedestrians elsewhere.
In 2015, a non-Indigenous driver was spared jail over the hit-and-run death of eight-year-old Aboriginal boy Jack Sultan-Page in Palmerston.
