EXCLUSIVE: Labor MLA Manuel Brown lied about rendering first aid to a woman he killed with his car in 2009, the victim’s family says, while demanding to know why the Chief Minister defended the man who took their mother’s life “as an excellent representative of the community” before she knew the facts of the horrific crash.

Mr Brown’s criminal conviction for killing the 62-year-old Aboriginal health provider in Katherine was first reported by the NT Independent last month ahead of the Arafura by-election, which Territory Labor, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles and Mr Brown had not publicly disclosed.

Manuel Brown was initially charged with dangerous driving causing death for his role in the 2009 crash, but later pleaded guilty in 2010 to a reduced charge of driving with undue care and was let off with a 10-month good behaviour bond.

Mr Brown has made a number of statements about the crash, first to police at the time and more recently to the public, that have been contradicted by the court statement of facts and now eye-witnesses.

In a public statement after the conviction was revealed, Mr Brown said the incident was a “multi-vehicle collision” and that he had “rendered first aid” to the victim at the scene of the crime, but that she unfortunately died later in hospital.

However, the son of the victim, who was in the passenger seat of the car said Mr Brown was lying about performing first aid.

He said Mr Brown was “disoriented” after the crash and had claimed he was coming from a funeral shortly after running the stop sign on a Friday afternoon and smashing into the car with enough force to trap the victim inside and send it spinning into another vehicle.

“He T-boned us, smashing into my mum’s side [of the car],” said the son, now 40, while reliving the traumatic events of the day his mother died.

“He did not render first aid whatsoever. I confronted him and said ‘what the fuck are you doing’. His response, which I will always remember to this day was, ‘I’m not from here, I came from a funeral’. He was trying to use that to explain his erratic driving.”

The son, who the NT Independent has agreed not to name at this time, said he was unsure if Mr Brown had been drinking at the funeral but said he seemed “disoriented” and that he would not let him near his mother who was trapped inside the car, eventually needing to be extricated with the Jaws of Life.

“Would you let your mother get first aid from the guy who just hit her?” the son said.

“I haven’t forgiven him, I always remembered his name and face. I was always thinking I’d come across him [again]. I just didn’t think I’d see him in the public eye running for office.”

The son told the NT Independent last month, when first contacted, that he needed time before he was ready to talk about the events of that day in June 2009 that forever changed his and his family members’ lives.

The victim’s son recently said the hurt and loss from the crash still lingered and was reignited after seeing Mr Brown in media reports about the Arafura by-election.

“I lost my mother who was my rock, she was my sister’s rock, the family’s rock,” he said. “Obviously my aunty, who was her sister, my nephews and nieces miss her a lot.

“I think a lot of her when I look at my children…She would have been a good grandmother.”

The NT Independent has chosen not to name the victim as per the family’s wishes.

Mr Brown had called the crash an “accident” in his public statement and implied that it was a “multi-vehicle collision”, which recently obtained court records refute and show he was the sole perpetrator of the crash.

He also claimed to police in a statement that he believed he had the right of way after flying through the stop sign and later that he was only driving 50km/h, despite court records showing he hit the victim’s car so hard she was trapped inside and another motorist suffered whiplash after his stopped car was hit by the victim’s car spinning out of control following impact.

Mr Brown was not tested for alcohol or drugs at the scene and inexplicably allowed to provide a formal statement in a police interview 10 days later in his hometown of Batchelor.

“That was before alcohol and drug testing was mandatory,” the victim’s son said. “That’s another thing that came in too late.

“They also finally put a roundabout at that intersection, where there were near misses before. But as soon as someone passes, then they seem to rectify traffic issues like that.”

‘An excellent representative of our community’: Fyles on Brown after conviction made public

Manuel Brown again did not respond to the NT Independent’s questions yesterday, including if he had consumed alcohol at the funeral he attended on the Friday afternoon just before the fatal crash.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles also refused to respond to questions, including if she would refer Mr Brown to the Labor Party’s own internal disciplinary committee for lying to the party or remove him from the parliamentary caucus for dishonesty.

The victim’s son said he was shocked to hear Ms Fyles publicly defending Mr Brown last month when his conviction for causing his mother’s death was finally revealed.

Ms Fyles told reporters ahead of the by-election that Mr Brown was “an excellent representative of our community” when asked about his conviction. She also claimed Mr Brown had told her and the party about his criminal past but did not provide details of the incident.

She did not explain why neither she nor the party disclosed the incident publicly.

“Natasha Fyles vouched for his ‘mistake’, as she called it,” the victim’s son said.

“It was a total snatch of life, he shouldn’t be in public office after what he did.

“There’s no way the Chief Minister should be vouching for him for what he’s done in the past when she has no idea of the facts.

“She’s only going on hearsay. When I heard she vouched for him, I couldn’t believe it. Our Chief Minister who is supposed to be leading the NT is vouching for this man who shouldn’t be in office after what he did.”