A NSW Police officer charged over a fatal collision that killed an Indigenous teenager has been found guilty.
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story contains the image of a person who has died.
Benedict Bryant pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death over the crash in inner Sydney in February 2022.
Sixteen-year-old Jai Kalani Wright died in hospital after suffering serious head injuries when the motorbike he was riding collided with an unmarked police car in Alexandria.
Police said the bike was stolen along with a car, both of which had been spotted by officers nearby before the incident.
Jai Wright was 16 years old when he died in hospital after suffering head injuries in a collision with an unmarked police car. (Supplied.)
Judge Jane Culver said the main issue was whether the prosecution could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bryant drove in a dangerous manner and that it caused Jai’s death.
The Crown argued the cause of the collision was Bryant’s decision to establish a roadblock that made it impossible for Jai to manoeuvre around it.
Crown prosecutor Phillip Strickland, SC, said during his closing submissions that because Bryant had received a directive not to pursue the bike, it should have alerted the sergeant that any attempt to block Jai with his car “created a risk” that Jai would ride in a dangerous manner to avoid apprehension.
Damage to the police vehicle of officer Bendict Bryant. (Supplied: NSW Supreme Court)
“The accused had relevant information that would allow him to conclude that the rider of the trail bike would go to considerable lengths to avoid capture,” Mr Strickland said.
“The fact that the accused knew about that directive … should have acted to him as a specific warning,” he said.
The prosecutor said as an experienced police officer of more than 22 years, Bryant ought to have known the rider would not stop.
Judge Culver told the court she agreed with the Crown’s arguments, saying that all the reasons proved beyond a reasonable doubt that “the accused was driving the motor vehicle in a manner dangerous to another person or persons.”
“The accused so seriously failed to properly manage the vehicle that he created a real danger,” she said.
‘This should be the outcome’
Mr Wright, left, as friends and family embrace outside Darlinghurst District Court ahead of verdict over Jai Wright’s death. (ABC News: Jack Ailwood)
Speaking after the verdict was handed down, Jai’s father, Lachlan Wright, told reporters he knew “from the day of the accident this should be the outcome”.
“From that first day we were told by a senior police officer that this happened, and a car pulled in front of Jai and caused the collision,” he said.
“After that, we had to put up with police investigator, the police, and this not being pursued by the DPP. We had to put up with going to a coronial inquest.”
Mr Wright said what occurred on the street in Alexandria almost three years ago “shouldn’t happen”.
“This doesn’t completely change anything for our family and all our friends here, because we don’t have Jai, and Jai is not with us,” Mr Wright said.
“But we’re clear as a family, as a community that, you know, things like this shouldn’t, shouldn’t happen.
“And if things can change in the future in regards to relationships between Aboriginal people in this country and, the police force, maybe this will happen again.”
Judge finds Bryant had no defence
PolAir vision of the scene where Jai Wright died. (Supplied: NSW Supreme Court)
The prosecutor said as an experienced police officer of more than 22 years, Bryant ought to have known the rider would not stop.
Judge Culver told the court she agreed with the Crown’s arguments.
“The accused so seriously failed to properly manage the vehicle that he created a real danger,” she said.
In an interview Bryant had with police following the crash, he said when he heard the report of the stolen vehicles, he believed the suspects would abandon them at a known dumping site for stolen cars and began to head there.
(Supplied: NSW Supreme Court)
Bryant said as he was on his way to the dumping site in Waterloo when he heard the broadcast message to not pursue an incoming trail bike.
He said he then saw another vehicle, later identified as another police car, and within a second saw a trail bike approaching the intersection.
Bryant said he misinterpreted the speed Jai was riding the bike at only 40 to 50 kilometres per hour and believed the teenager would slow down to exit the bike lane.