Lenient sentence sparks protests

Aboriginal teenager was killed when a man ran him over in a truck in Western Australia

Shouting “shame,” protesters on Monday held demonstrations across Australia to express their anger over what they said was a lenient sentence in the death of a 14-year-old aboriginal boy.

Outside the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, many protesters wore black, yellow and red — the colours of the aboriginal flag — and Black Lives Matter shirts. They said the sentence was yet another injustice against the indigenous community.

“Aboriginal blood has been spilt, and it continues to be spilt,” Lynda-June Coe, a representative of Fighting in Solidarity Towards Treaties, an advocacy group for Australia’s First Nations people, told the crowd.

“The primary target of this undeclared war is our children.

“When does this stop?” she added.

Stolen motorcycle

insanity

The teenager, Elijah Doughty, was killed in August 2016 in Kalgoorlie, a city in Western Australia, when a man, whose identity has not been released, ran him over in a truck. The man said that Elijah was riding a motorcycle that had been stolen from his house. The man said that he had been catching up to the motorcycle when it veered unexpectedly in front of his truck, leading to a collision.

On Friday, the Supreme Court of Western Australia acquitted the man of manslaughter but convicted him on the charge of dangerous driving occasioning death, to which he pleaded guilty.

That charge has a maximum sentence of 10 years, but he was given three years, with the eligibility for parole.

Demonstrations in Melbourne and Brisbane are scheduled for later this week.