Readers are advised this article contains the name and image of a person who has died, used with the permission of her family.
The family of a woman killed in a hit-and-run outside Darwin have told local media they feel "disgusted" and "baffled" after the driver, who hid her body in an attempt to avoid justice, was released from prison on appeal after serving 30 months.
In 2022 Joshua Mason fatally struck Kumanjayi Nungarrayai Dixon with his vehicle while she was walking home. He then called his mother, rather than an ambulance or police, who helped him put Ms Dixon's body in the back of a ute before burying her in a shallow grave in Darwin's rural area.
Mason later pleaded guilty to hit-and-run driving causing death, perverting the course of justice and interfering with a corpse.
The Supreme Court heard that Ms Dixon's disembodied leg was found two days later on the side of the Stuart Highway, alerting police to the incident.
Originally sentenced to six year's jail with a non-parole period of three years, Mason was released on Friday after an appeal reduced his total sentence to three years, and suspended it, meaning he walked free that day.
Ms Dixon's sister, Carol Dixon, told the ABC the appeal outcome came as a shock and brought painful emotions back to the surface.
"It feels like she meant nothing, he just walks out after [two-and-a-half years]," she said.
"It's so unjust, it's so wrong."
Ms Dixon told the national broadcaster the outcome was representative of an "insane" justice system that did not value Indigenous lives.
"The prison system in the NT is overflowing with Indigenous people getting locked up for the littlest crimes," she said.
"But you've got this young, male, non-Indigenous person, that's driving unlicensed … hits an Indigenous woman, calls his mother, buries the body and then goes back and digs it up.
"What insane justice system thinks it's OK that after [two-and-a-half years] he could possibly walk free?"
The Court of Criminal Appeal ordered Mason's release on Friday on the basis his original sentence was "manifestly excessive", re-sentencing him to three years, suspended immediately.
His defence barrister, Ian Read SC, had argued Mason had already served a longer sentence than others who faced similar charges and noted his "very good work record" and "glowing" character references.
Indigenous people make up a majority of fatal pedestrian strikes in the NT, despite being less than one third of the Territory's population.
Ms Dixon said the high rate of hit-and-runs in the NT was indicative of a lack of regard for Aboriginal lives - a lack of regard reinforced by the court's decision.
"We're humans too, we're people too, just because of the colour of our skin … we still should be respected," she told the ABC.
