This comes after a sentencing handed down on Monday 15th September 2025. According to an ABC news article by Matt Garrick, a white Darwin man, Jake Danby, (24) who hit two pedestrians with his car, and sped away, later bragging to his friends about the incident, has been spared jail time and given a slap on the wrist, with only a community corrections order, serving 5 months time in home detention after pleading guilty to hit-and-run driving causing death.

Danby struck the two Aboriginal men with his car and then failed to stop on June 13th, 2024. 

One of the victims, 39-year-old Mr Whitehurst, was thrown seven metres in the crash and received a traumatic brain injury from which he later died in Royal Darwin Hospital.

A 37-year-old man was hospitalised with non-life threatening injuries.

The court heard Danby sent a series of "disgusting" text messages to his friends in the hours after the crash, in which he labelled the crash victims as "dogs" and "n***ers". 

In one message, Danby described the crash as a "two for one combo".

"They learnt their lesson now, maybe next time they will use the crossing instead of walking out in front of cars, expecting me to stop like they own the place," the text message read.

"They were rolling all over the road like bitches when I looked in my … mirror," read another.

"The world needs c***s like me to take a hit to teach these c***s a lifelong lesson."

Another message read "maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to claim his Centrelink for taking out another oxygen thief".

This sentencing, handed down by Judge Sonia Brownhill, is equivalent to a kindergarten playground dispute, where Brownhill accepts that he says he's sorry, and we are all supposed to accept that killing another human being, and boasting about it, are acceptable terms for not serving jail time in this country. 

This is just one blatant example of racism in this country, where a white man can avoid jail time, because he says he's sorry and didn't mean to hurt anyone.  If this were a non-white person, jail time would be the immediate response by the justice system. The percentages of Aboriginal people serving jail time in this country for crimes less severe than anything like this, is alarming and shameful. 

If we are to believe that our criminal justice system has any credibility whatsoever, then this sentence needs to be reviewed and overturned, and the validity of Judge Sonia Brownhill needs questioning and investigating. 

Justice Brownhill said the text messages "demonstrated a shockingly callous disregard for the welfare of the victims", and yet she still let him get away without jail time anyway.  

Danby's lawyer Michael Drury acknowledged the text messages were "disgusting" but argued the act was an "isolated incident" and said his client had no criminal history and a strong ongoing employment record in the construction industry. And so this makes it all OK? How are we to know this will continue to be an isolated incident, especially if he doesn't serve jail time and seems to have boasted about it to his friends? How are we to know other people aren't going to do the same, because they only get a slap on the wrist?

Mr Drury said, while his client "doesn't claim to have found God", he had recently attended a church and spoken to a pastor in regards to the incident. So apparently this clears him of serving jail time? 

If this decision is not overturned, then it sends a clear message to other people that hit and run incidents are not serious, especially if you're white and hit an Aboriginal person. 

Please review this decision and show us what the 'justice' part of 'criminal justice' actually means. 

Update: Like we didn't suspect this!!! He's got a close relative in the justice system. Marie Claire Boothby, Attorney General. Surprise, surprise. One of his texts (unverified as yet) apparently read: ‘I have to hand myself in but I ain't getting jail time. I'm a Danby, we don't go to jail.'

We'll see about that.  

This case is now going to be appealed. But we still need to keep the pressure on, to let them know we are watching.