Comparing Jari’s Case To Similar Cases: No.4 Jennifer Board

Comparing Jari’s Case To Similar Cases: No.4 Jennifer Board

Jari Wise was murdered by his partner on February 29, 2020.  The Tasmanian police did not investigate or charge his partner for his murder.  It’s been over 2 years.  For detailed information about the story see the #Justice4Jari website here and my interview with Jari’s mother Faith here.

This series of posts looks at similar cases in Australia where someone has been hit and killed in a hit and run.  The aim is to see how the police typically respond along with the courts, community, media and Government.  This should expose the gender and race bias and the sheer incompetence of the Tasmanian authorities in their management of Jari’s case.

Here is a case to compare with Jari’s:

Jennifer Board

Jennifer Board

Victim/s: 

Jennifer Board

Perpetrator/s: 

  1. Christopher Michael Hughes (Vigilante chasing a stolen car; driver of the vehicle that hit and killed Jennifer unintentionally)
  2. Gregory Clubb (Driver of the stolen vehicle that was being chased by Mr Hughes)
  3. Layne Newman (Passenger in Mr Clubb’s stolen vehicle)
 

Relationship of P & V: 

Random hit & run.

Location: 

Townsville, Queensland, Australia.

Circumstances: 

Jennifer Board, 22, was killed when her motorbike was hit by a car that veered onto the wrong side of Riverway Drive in Townsville on 5/2/21.

Police allege the car was driven by Christopher Michael Hughes, 26, who had been in pursuit of a stolen car that was also involved in the crash.

Police Response: 

Mr Hughes was charged with murder.

Mr Clubb was arrested and charged with 20 offences, including manslaughter, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and breach of bail conditions.

Mr Newman was arrested, charged.

(5 in total were arrested and charged in response to the event)

Consequence:

Mr Newman was imprisoned.  Newman pleaded guilty to 21 charges, including six counts of unlawful use of a motor vehicle and seven counts of stealing.  He was sentenced to 15 months.

Other details TBC

Community Response:

Community vigil.  

Government Response: 

Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon said the death of Jennifer Board shocked Townsville.

Assistant Commissioner Schafferius said the new taskforce would commence immediately and run 24/7.  It will re-route around 100 officers to specifically target recidivist offenders.

Veteran police officer Cheryl Scanlon will head a new state-wide youth crime taskforce, and today said engaging the families of alleged offenders was “critical” in tackling the problem. That follows the formation of another Townsville-specific police taskforce.

Local MP Philip Thompson stated in parliament:

Townsville lost a young woman to a senseless crime. Twenty-two-year-old Jennifer Board had only just bought her new motorbike when she was hit by a car that was chasing a stolen car. Tragically, Jennifer did not survive.

The next day, the crash scene was covered in orange, Jennifer’s favourite colour. A fence was lined with flowers and cards. Hundreds of people—friends, family and strangers—gathered together to try and make sense of the shock and grief that they were feeling. How could a young woman well known, respected and loved in our community be snatched from us in this way? Jennifer loved adventure, the outdoors, her bike and fitness. She loved helping people in her job at the gym. Her friends say she could never hurt a single person in her life. Now Townsville is without one of our people who exemplify what is great about our community.

The emotions at Saturday’s impromptu community memorial were real and raw. Ever since, people have been asking the question: how could this have happened? It’s a question that’s repeated in my mind over and over. Why has it taken a tragic event like this one for Townsville’s long-running issue with youth crime to get the attention it deserves? We owe it to Jennifer to be better, to do better. I’m sorry. We have failed you. Rest in peace.

Comparison to Jari’s Case:

All 5 of the driver’s and passengers of both vehicles that resulted in Jennifer’s death were charged.  There was a huge response from the community and the Government.  A phenomenal amount of resources were spent on investigating and prosecuting the offenders in this case.  Everyone commented on the case including the Premier.  

This was such a senseless crime.  The concerning element is that Tasmania Police are saying that Jari’s death was an unfortunate accident therefore his partner was not charged.  However, this shows that in other cases if it is an accident the offenders will still be charged.  The fact that it is an “accident” doesn’t matter.  Not only were the driver’s of the vehicle charged but so were the passenger’s.  This seems fair considering Jennifer was completely innocent.  But how is it fair that Melissa Oates has not been charged when she stated she was going to murder Jari and deliberately ran him down and killed him.  The double standards are ludicrous.

Articles/Sources:

  1. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-05/townsville-mourning-12-months-after-jennifer-board-death/100805102
  2. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-16/man-charged-with-murder-of-jennifer-board-denied-bail/100706246
  3. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10428853/Facebook-vigilante-allegedly-killed-Jennifer-Board-streaming-high-speed-Townsville-car-chase.html
  4. https://7news.com.au/news/qld/new-details-emerge-after-jennifer-board-killed-in-devastating-townsville-motorbike-crash-c-2111129
  5. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-09/qld-court-townsville-men-fatal-car-crash-remanded-in-custody/13135030
  6. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansardr%2F02b5bbb8-03c3-444a-81a7-cac982040a76%2F0337;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F02b5bbb8-03c3-444a-81a7-cac982040a76%2F0067%22
  7. https://inqld.com.au/news/2021/02/09/court-outburst-townsville-men-charged-over-fatal-car-crash-remanded-in-custody/ 

     

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A.B.James

I'm a musician, a podcaster, a blogger & I work in marketing.

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