Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\nAn overflow court room in Sydney\u2019s Downing Centre district court was required to accommodate Wright\u2019s family and friends as they gathered to hear Bryant sentenced on Friday.<\/p>\n
Many were wearing T-shirts bearing the teenager\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
An emotional cry rang out from the gallery as the officer was sentenced to a two-year intensive corrections order \u2013 a term of imprisonment served outside jail.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo sentence can ever measure the value of a human life, especially not a life tragically lost so young, a life not fully lived, a life that matters,\u201d the judge, Jane Culver, said.<\/p>\n
It is the first time in NSW a police officer has been held criminally responsible for an Aboriginal death during a police operation, according to the Aboriginal Legal Service.<\/p>\n
Jai\u2019s mother Kylie Aloua previously said she didn\u2019t want Bryant to be jailed so his family don\u2019t have to suffer the same loss she feels.<\/p>\n
The judge described that wish as eloquent \u201cin a way that is utterly humbling\u201d as she relayed a victim impact statement written by Aloua.<\/p>\n
The statement was accompanied by a chorus of sobs and the emptying of tissue boxes around the court room.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery ambulance siren, every police siren, every rushed footstep takes me straight back to that moment\u201d, Aloua wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will never reach adulthood \u2026 I will never be a grandmother to his children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe loneliness is overwhelming. I\u2019m not living, I\u2019m surviving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Culver was visibly moved by the words, turning to address Wright\u2019s mother directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour son certainly mattered, and continues to matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Wrights father, Lachlan Wright, said the effect of his son\u2019s death was still being keenly felt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know this will never end for us all \u2026 because all we have is a big family without the glue that kept us together,\u201d he wrote in his own victim impact statement.<\/p>\n
He sat across the court room from his son\u2019s killer on Friday.<\/p>\n
The judge found Bryant, who still serves as a police officer, should have known placing his car in Jai\u2019s path without lights and sirens on could have caused a collision that posed a serious risk to the 16-year-old.<\/p>\n
Culver also found the officer should have known someone disobeying road rules and showing no signs of slowing would not stop at the end of a bike lane.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe offender ought to have known that where he placed his vehicle was fraught with danger\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
She nevertheless found it possible Bryant wrongly believed he was parking the car out of harm\u2019s way, reducing the officer\u2019s moral culpability.<\/p>\n
But she found Bryant had minimal remorse and was instead \u201cpredominantly occupied with appealing his future sentence\u201d and supposed anti-police sentiment.<\/p>\n
Bryant sat still, staring straight ahead with his hands in his lap as his sentence was handed down.<\/p>\n
He was also ordered to complete 500 hours of community service and a three-year suspension of his driving licence.<\/p>\n
Bryant\u2019s solicitor, Paul McGirr, told reporters the serving police officer would appeal against the sentence, which he claims \u201cdoesn\u2019t pass the pub test\u201d.<\/p>\n
For information and support in Australia call 13YARN<\/a> on 13 92 76 for a crisis support line for Indigenous Australians; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wail rung out through a court room as a police officer was sentenced for killing an Indigenous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-716799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}