A 25-year-old man convicted of a hit-and-run crash which resulted in the death of a pedestrian has had his sentence extended on appeal, meaning he will now have to serve two years in home detention.
Warning: This story contains content some readers may find distressing, and the name of an Indigenous person who has died, with the permission of family.
Jake Danby walked from the NT Supreme Court last year after being sentenced for hitting two Aboriginal pedestrians with his car in Darwin’s northern suburbs in June 2024 and fleeing the scene.
He was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order, with five months to be served in home detention, which was due to finish this month.
One of the men, a 39-year-old known as Mr Whitehurst for cultural reasons, died from his injuries in Royal Darwin Hospital.
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Following the incident, Danby sent a series of text messages to friends boasting about the incident, in which he called the victims “dogs”, an “oxygen thief” and a “two for one combo”.
In another text Danby wrote: “I ain’t getting jail time. I’m a Danby, we don’t go to jail.”
He is also expected to plead guilty in Darwin Local Court next month to speeding, driving unlicensed and unregistered in relation to the same incident.
The lack of any prison time in Danby’s sentence last year triggered outcry from Mr Whitehurst’s family members and Aboriginal groups across the NT.
In the wake of the sentence, it was also revealed that Danby was a relative of the NT’s Attorney General Marie-Clare Boothby.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed the decision in September, citing the sentence handed down by the NT Supreme Court as “manifestly inadequate”.
Judges say text messages ‘reprehensible’
The NT Court of Criminal Appeal — represented by Chief Justice Michael Grant, Justice Jenny Blokland and Justice Meredith Day Huntingford — this morning handed down its decision on Danby’s sentence, more than two months after the appeal was heard in Darwin.
The court said in its judgement that “our assessment is that the offending here is objectively more serious and should have attracted a term of more than 12 months’ imprisonment”.
“The respondent knew he had struck two people. He knew at least one was injured. He was aware of the possibility of death,” the judgement said.
“While his motivation to avoid police at the time of committing the offence was not based on racism, his later delay in advising police of his whereabouts involved mixed motivations, including to some degree, the racist sentiments contained in the text messages.”
Jake Danby pleaded guilty to hit-and-run driving causing death, speeding and driving unlicensed. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
Of Danby’s text messages, the judges determined that they revealed a “reprehensible, callous and racist disregard for human life and dignity of two Aboriginal persons”.
However, they said the texts did not demonstrate “beyond reasonable doubt” that Danby’s failure to stop and give assistance to the victims was motivated by racism.
“The motivation for the respondent leaving the scene and failing to do what was both legally and morally required, was more likely to have been in order to avoid being tested for drugs and consequently avoid licence disqualification,” the judgement said.
Jake Danby was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order in September 2025. (ABC News: Tristan Hooft)
In extending Danby’s sentence, the appeal judges also noted that during his period of home detention served already, the offender had shown he was “now on a positive path of rehabilitation”.
Among the conditions of Danby’s new sentence, his community corrections order has been extended to two years, and he will have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for the duration of his two-year period.
He will remain in home detention until September 2027.
A spokesperson for the DPP declined to comment on today’s decision.Â