NT Director of Public Prosecutions launches appeal against jail term for Wayne Hunt

A grandmother is fighting for her 11-year-old grandson’s killer to receive a stronger sentence, after the drug driver received a three month prison term.

Palmerston grandmother Darleen Appo outside of court following the appeal hearing for Wayne Hunt, the drug driver who killed her 11-year-old grandson Daemarius Purcell-Appo in December 2022. Picture: Zizi Averill

“My grandson died for an iced coffee.”

Facing the sterile walls of the Supreme Court in Darwin, Palmerston grandmother Darleen Appo says her 11-year-old grandson’s life was treated like it was “nothing” both by the drug driver whose risks led to the primary schooler being pinned to the walls of a suburban supermarket, and the courts that sought to punish him.

Just five days before Christmas in 2022, her “fun loving” and “happy” grandson, Daemarius Purcell-Appo was killed after drug driver Wayne Hunt made two fatal errors while trying to retrieve an iced coffee that had rolled underneath his Dodge Ram ute at the Moulden shops.

11-year-old Queensland boy Daemarius Purcell-Appo was killed by a drug driver just five days before Christmas 2022. Picture: Supplied by family

The 54-year-old, one-legged man was high on cannabis and driving an unmodified vehicle when he accidentally switched his car to drive — not park — and pressed the accelerator, not the brake.

Silent security footage showed the vehicle lurch forward and plough into young Queensland boy Daemarius, causing fatal injuries.

In February Wayne Hunt pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death and was sentenced to three months in prison, followed by a nine month home detention order.

Seven months later, Ms Appo said she was still confused and hurt over the sentence.

“To me, that day it felt like his life didn’t mean much at all,” she said.

The Indigenous woman believes this is part of a national pattern of “lighter” sentences for white perpetrators who seriously injured or even killed Aboriginal children.

“Our babies to the system, it's like they’re nothing — they’re just a number,” Ms Appo said.

Wayne Peter Hunt comes out of the Supreme Court trial after allegedly killing 11-year-old Daemarius Purcell-Appo with his ute in a Moulden car park. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“Whether the child be black, or white, or the child be brindle, there should be justice for our children in these cases where the driver is at fault.

“And that’s why I sit here for my grandson … he’s a person, he’s a human being and he’s someone’s child.”

On Friday, the Supreme Court of Appeal heard arguments from the Director of Public Prosecutions that Hunt’s three-month prison sentence was “manifestly inadequate”.

DPP director Lloyd Babb rejected Hunt’s actions were a product of “momentary inattention”, saying the Daemarius’ death was the culmination of Hunt’s “careless and selfish decisions” — choosing to drive to the Moulden supermarket, despite being high on cannabis and in a vehicle not modified for his disability.

Mr Babb said despite having the equivalent intoxication of a low to medium blood alcohol level of 0.05 to 0.1, Hunt took the risk for the “trivial purpose” of buying an iced coffee.

“Fun loving” and “happy” 11-year-old Daemarius Purcell-Appo was killed five days before Christmas 2022. Picture: Supplied by family

The sentencing Justice, Meredith Huntingford, said Hunt’s decision to drive while intoxicated was “reckless”, but noted he had demonstrated “harrowing forms of remorse and guilt”.

Justice Huntingford noted his time in prison would have been onerous given he was left with a disability and post-traumatic stress disorder from a motorcycle crash that claimed his leg in 2008.

Hunt’s barrister Ambrith Abayasekara said all these factors were appropriately assessed in the sentencing around the “the terrible, tragic … accident”.

Mr Abayasekara maintained Hunt’s “momentary inattention” was worsened by the ute’s dial gear, saying the “flick of the wrist” motion was easier to mistake than the traditional stick gear system.

But Justice Grant pointed out intoxication may have played a role in this error, stating “P is on the right other end of the dial to D”.

“It’s a very big mistake to make,” he said.

The Court of Appeal reserved its decision to a later date.

The parents of Daemarius Purcell-Appo. Picture: Riley Walter

Ms Appo said the choices taken by Hunt that day “rippled right through our family”, also killing parts of Daemarius’s mother and uncle, who watched helplessly as his nephew died on the pavement.

“On that day where I lost my grandson, I didn’t just lose him,” she said.

“One has died and the other two haven’t, but part of them has died.”