‘Fear of rape, death or arson’: Regina Wilson and family sue NTG over Peppimenarti Jovi Boys terror

The Wilsons say the Jovi Boys ‘continue to defy police online’ where they post pictures on social media and ‘brandish firearms, show offensive weapons and adopt obscene poses’.

Regina Pilawuk Wilson’s children are Peppimenarti’s TOs via her late husband Harold Wilson, who founded the town as a cattle station in the early 1970s. Picture: Jason Walls

Peppimenarti Traditional Owners are demanding compensation and a public apology from the Territory government for allowing the Jovi Boys gang to force them to live in constant “fear of rape, death or arson”.

Clan matriarch Regina Pilawuk Wilson lodged a racial discrimination complaint on behalf of the Wilson family with the Australian Human Rights Commission in February last year.

But the complaint was terminated a year later after the government “declined to participate in conciliation” and the commission determined there was “no reasonable prospect of the matter being settled”.

The Wilsons have now escalated the fight to the Federal Court, with documents filed with the court last Friday and seen by the NT News claiming the Jovis “have persisted in violently attacking and menacing Wilson clan members” since 2019.

The Wilsons say some family members have been forced “to abandon their homes” and move in with relatives where they live in “fear of rape, death or arson” or “camp in tents like refugees” while “complaints to police fall on deaf ears”.

In early 2020, Ms Wilson claims she and her granddaughter “were physically assaulted by two female Jovis” but “no action was taken”.

Machete damage to longtime Peppimenarti resident Karl Lukanovic’s heavily fortified home he says was inflicted in a raid by the Jovi Boys. Picture: Jason Walls

And since then “the Jovis have consistently threatened and committed sexual assaults against Wilson clan women and violence and vandalism against group members’ property”.

“Jovis regularly attack their homes in numbers, sometimes 30 to 50 Jovis, throwing weapons – people are scared to leave home,” the documents read.

In April 2021, they claim about 15 Jovis armed with axes and tomahawks attacked the Wilsons while phone calls to police went “to voicemail” but instead of charging the gang member who threw an axe at her grandson, Ms Wilson says her grandson was charged for throwing it back “in self-defence”.

Then in October that year, Ms Wilson claims her daughter was “sexually threatened” by two Jovis but her statement was “refused under false pretences” that she couldn’t speak English and “no follow up investigation occurred”.

Members of Peppimenarti's notorious Jovi Boys gang post photos of their activities online.

In early 2023, co-applicant and Deewin Kirim Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Ray Whear claims he waited for eight minutes on hold to triple-0 before police finally arrived an hour later, by which time “two youths had been shot by Jovis”.

Three months later, Mr Whear claims he was “stabbed by a Jovi in his home” and “his house was destroyed”.

The applicants claim despite their “frequent complaints” there have been no adequate investigations, prosecutions or law enforcement against the gang members who “continue to defy police online with pictures”.

“Male Jovis have been readily identifiable since late 2019 on social media, where they brandish firearms, show offensive weapons and adopt obscene poses,” the documents read.

“Despite this, police failed to take any, or any effective, action to respect and ensure the applicants’ human rights.”

Dean Wilson was shot through the chest with a crossbow in gang violence in Peppimenarti in 2020. Picture: Supplied

They claim to have provided cabinet ministers with “evidence of the Jovis’ destruction and violence”, with government representatives “given a tour of Peppimenarti to see destruction” but “no one has followed up, effectively or adequately or at all”.

“The Wilson clan suffered one death, one grievous wound, at least two severe sexual assaults, several women sexually threatened, homes constantly vandalised/trashed/flooded, multiple arson/vandalism incidents against cars, frequent injuries, and constant mental violence,” the documents read.

The applicants claim the authorities “simply would not have treated non-Indigenous victims of intra-communal violence in the NT the same way”.

“Inaction is not the police/government approach to serious crimes committed against caucasians – witness (the) killing of Declan Laverty at Darwin in March 2023,” the documents read.