A NSW Police officer convicted over a fatal collision that killed an Indigenous teenager has avoided time behind bars.
Benedict Bryant will serve an intensive corrective order. (ABC News: Simon Amery)
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story contains the image of a person who has di*d.
Benedict Bryant was sentenced on Friday to two years’ imprisonment, to be served as an intensive corrective order and 500 hours of unpaid community service work.
He was also disqualified from driving for three years.
Bryant was found guilty of dangerous driving occasioning d**th in November last year.
Legal experts and First Nations advocates have said it was the first time a police officer had been convicted in relation to a d**th in custody of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.
Jai Kalani Wright, 16, died in hospital after suffering serious head injuries when the motorbike he was riding collided with an unmarked police car in inner Sydney in February 2022.
Police said the bike was stolen along with a car, both of which had been spotted by officers nearby before the incident.
Jai Wright’s father Lachlan (left) says he’s relieved the case is over. (ABC News: Jamie McKinnell)
Jai Wright’s father, Lachlan Wright, said the case showed “something went terribly wrong”.
“Relieved that it’s over is the best way to describe it,” he said.
“This has been a long, long journey .. it’s a hard day because you go through a lot of memories of Jai so to have family support is very important and that’s what got us through all that.
“It [the judgement] was about some kind of … to close things off you know. We’ve lost our son, nothing can ever bring that back.”
Jai Wright was 16 years old when he died in hospital after suffering head injuries in a collision with an unmarked police car. (Supplied.)
Speaking outside court, Bryant’s lawyer, Paul McGirr, said the decision “didn’t pass the pub test” and that they would appeal.
“I don’t want to add grief to the family a life has been lost but that life could have been spared,” he said.
“As I said and I’m not trying to rub salt into the wounds, if people were at home … we wouldn’t be here.”
Bryant’s ‘honest but mistaken belief’
At the final sentence hearing, Judge Jane Culver told the packed courtroom of Bryant’s experience as a police officer of over 20 years.
She said while Bryant had made an ‘honest but mistaken’ belief that Jai would come to a stop at the end of the path, he ought to have known that because of his work experience his actions would pose a serious risk.
Judge Culver noted Bryant had since “in hindsight” said he should not have proceeded with his actions, and said it was a “horrific tragedy” that has caused “anguish” for Jai’s parents.
An image tendered to court showing Bryant’s car and the bike after impact. (Supplied: NSW Supreme Court)
However, the court heard Bryant’s extent of remorse was distracted by an appeal about his future and perception of an “anti-police narrative”.
She noted Bryant had no criminal history, had “good prospects” for rehabilitation, and a low risk of reoffending.
Judge Culver remarked that it was “important to note no sentence can ever measure the value of a human life, especially not a human life tragically lost so young, a life not fully lived, a life that mattered”.
Bryant’s role within NSW Police is under review and has since been largely administrative.