Indigenous Family "Struggling To Cope" After Son's Killer Is Sentenced

"There's no hope in the world."

Faye and Michael Sultan-Page are struggling to cope following the sentencing of 23-year-old Matthew Alexander earlier this month over the hit-and-run death of their nine-year-old son, Jack.

Faye and Michael Sultan-Page (Allan Clarke/BuzzFeed)

Jack was killed when Alexander's car struck him down as he rode his BMX bike in the Palmerston suburb of Moulden just outside Darwin in October last year.

Alexander was given an 18-month suspended, six months of which is to be spent in home detention. Jack's parents are adamant that the result would have been different if if the case involved a non-Indigenous child.

"We did a victim's impact statement but all along we could tell he wasn't going to jail. He's (Alexander) a whitefella and there's no hope in the world. I just knew he wasn't going to do time," Faye told BuzzFeed News.

"How can you just run people down, and you're only going to get six months home detention? That's just shocking. My little boy he's worth more than that to me."

Alexander had been smoking methamphetamine, commonly known as ice, on the day he hit Jack.

Jack Page (Supplied)

He then parked his car in a way to conceal the damage caused by the impact with Jack's body.

Faye says that from the start of the case, the family felt unsupported and unacknowledged by the judicial system.

At one point the judge told them to calm down and said that they were not in a pub, Faye says.

"We would sit in that court and we were never acknowledged. At the start he (Alexander) was asking for bail and I just lost it and I said something toward him. The judge turned around and said, 'we're not in a pub. We're not in a pub for you to raise your voices'," she tells BuzzFeed News.

"I thought 'what are you speaking to me like that for? Because I'm a black woman'?"

Michael says that the death has taken a heavy toll on the family. Faye barely sleeps, while Jack's siblings have become withdrawn and his only brother, seven-year-old William, has started lashing out.

"Willliam's gotten a bit angry, he has a lot of anger inside," Faye says.

Two days after being sentenced for the hit-and-run, Alexander was fined $2090 dollars for possession of methamphetamine, cannabis, a bong and one count of administering a dangerous drug.

Flowers where Jack Sultan-Page was killed (Allan Clarke/BuzzFeed)

Alexander's solicitor argued that the drugs were not a factor in the death of Jack, despite the drug offences occurring on the same day as the hit-and-run.

Magistrate John Neill told the court that, “The community can have real comfort in the fact this young man has done all he can to turn his life around.’’

Thousands have signed an online petition called "Justice For Lil Jack" asking for the Northern Territory Department of Public Prosecutions Director Jack Karczewski QC to appeal the sentence.

The NT Attorney General Joh Elferink has said that he could not order an appeal against Matthew Alexander's sentence, but has asked the DPP to consider appealing the decision.

"Let me start with this, my sympathy goes to the Sultan-Page family, of course this is still a very raw wound and I hope that time will give them comfort as time passes," Mr Elferink said.

"But having made that observation I've spoken to the head of the Department of Public Prosecutions today but it is beyond the reach of me as the Attorney General to direct the DPP to do anything."

The DPP have told BuzzFeed News that they do not make public comment on matters.