NSW Police sergeant Benedict Bryant was sentenced on June 5 after being found guilty in the District Court of NSW of dangerous driving which led to the death of Dunghutti teenager Jai Wright in 2022.
Bryant was not given a jail sentence, but ordered instead to serve an intensive corrective order and 500 hours of unpaid community service work.
The Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) said it is the first time a NSW Police officer has been held criminally responsible for the death of an Aboriginal person.
Jai was just 16 when he died the day after the collision in which Bryant had positioned his vehicle across a bike lane, effectively acting as a roadblock. The court heard Bryant had not switched on the car’s lights or sirens. Jai’s bike struck the police vehicle and he suffered fatal head injuries.
His loss has been devastating for his family and community. More than 600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody and police operations since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions charged police officer Benedict Bryant with “dangerous driving occasioning death” and “negligent driving occasioning death” in February last year, after the coroner referred the case on.
Lachlan Wright and Kylie Aloua, Jai’s parents, said last year that the referral had “given us a lot of hope; we have faith that we will get justice for Jai.”
They recounted the horror two years ago. “We received a call — one of the calls that as a parent you never want to receive — about Jai having an accident … we were by our son’s side as he passed away. Ever since then, we have been searching for the truth.”
Bryant’s lawyer Paul McGirr told the ABC that he would appeal the decision. Bryant’s role is under review by the NSW Police.
Outside the court, Wright told NITV: “We’ve lost our son which nothing can ever bring back so it was never about a sentence. It was never about that … something went terribly wrong and people have to be held accountable.”