Four-year-old girl allegedly assaulted by a relative in troubled NT town of Tennant Creek
AS Australia reels from two shocking reports of alleged child rapes, a four-year-old girl has allegedly been indecently assaulted by a relative.
EXCLUSIVE
A SHOCKING incident of child assault has emerged just a day after it was revealed that a four-year-old boy had been sexually assaulted at the Aboriginal community of Ali Curung, 170km southeast of Tennant Creek.
News.com.au has learned that a four-year-old girl has also allegedly been indecently assaulted by a relative in the troubled outback town of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Indecent assault is a type of sexual assault that involves unwanted touching of a person’s body by another person. For example, it can include kissing or inappropriate touching of a person’s breasts, bottom or genitals.
News.com.au can reveal that a teenage boy is accused of the crime, committed in January.
The alleged indecent assault was reported to Northern Territory Police.
An NT police spokesperson confirmed that an allegation of indecent assault involving a young girl was reported to Police, with investigations continuing into the report.
Despite the victim being treated at Tennant Creek Hospital, police deny she had suffered any physical injuries.
A spokesperson for NT government department Territory Families said it would not discussed the individual circumstances of children.
“In any case of alleged assault, sexual or otherwise, it is extremely important that we do not jeopardise the course of justice through identifying individuals and compromising the investigation,” a statement from Territory Families said.
It is unknown whether the girl was released back into the care of her family, her current condition, the present whereabouts of the accused or where the victim’s parents were at the time of the incident.
This week’s two fresh allegations of child abuse come a month after the horrific news broke that a Tennant Creek two-year-old had been allegedly raped by a 24-year-old relative in the crime-ravaged community. In that case, the little girl was taken to Alice Springs Hospital before being flown to Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital and placed in an induced coma. The alleged offender, who has been charged with unlawful sexual intercourse, is due to reappear in Alice Springs Magistrates Court on April 19.
Yesterday News Corp’s chief reporter Paul Toohey revealed that a four-year-old boy had also been assaulted on Sunday night. The child was taken to Alice Springs, 400km away, for medical treatment. A teenager has since been charged with sexually assaulting the child in Ali Curung, a remote Northern Territory town, near Tennant Creek.
The incident allegedly took place behind the community’s Baptist Church. Police said the 16-year-old male will appear in the Alice Springs Youth Court on Tuesday after being charged with sexually assaulting the child.
In the case of the two-year-old girl it has since emerged that Territory Families had received 21 safety warnings about the toddler prior to her alleged rape.
The NT government’s damning internal review into the case found that Territory Families “prematurely” ceased supporting the two-year-old’s family before her safety was “meaningfully addressed”.
The toddler’s shocking ordeal attracted national attention and put the critical situation in remote indigenous communities, where domestic violence and sexual assault is normalised, on the national agenda for a couple of weeks.
The intense media scrutiny prompted government officials to chopper down to the dysfunctional highway town 1000km south of Darwin and hold a handful of meetings with locals and council members.
Residents voiced their fears and offered commonsense solutions such as a five-year booze ban in the out-of-control community, while those close to the rape victim blamed everyone but themselves for the girl’s neglect.
But the forums may have only compounded the culture of silence in Tennant Creek after frontline workers who voiced their frustrations were in some cases reprimanded and business owners were told to stop speaking “negatively” about the community’s crisis ahead of the annual grey nomad migration.
However, in the wake of the outrage and an upswing in crime, reinforcements arrived.
About a dozen extra cops have been temporarily deployed to patrol Tennant Creek’s booze-soaked streets and Territory Families staff numbers have been slightly boosted.
Even with extra resources, emergency services remain run off their feet in a town where locals don’t hesitate to call an ambulance for a nosebleed and cops are constantly called to intervene in simple domestic disputes, which would otherwise escalate into violence.
Last month the government swiftly imposed temporary alcohol sale restrictions before extending them until mid-June.
The restrictions are a start, although each customer can still purchase either 24 cans or stubbies of full strength beer, 12 cans of Ready to Drink mixes, 750ml of spirits or two litres of cask wine per day, among other combinations.
The Tennant Creek Hotel — one of the town’s three main suppliers of takeaway grog — has loudly complained about police patrolling pubs for banned-drinkers and adherence to liquor licensing laws.
“Today every one of our 30 customers was questioned in detail by 11 Police officers … Apparently so under resourced they can’t man Bush Stations, do POSIs, or target secondary alcohol supply and yet can have 11 officers driving around all day doing this,” said a March 20 post on the hotel’s Facebook page.
Despite the clampdown, late last week customers could be seen carrying cartons of VB on their shoulders, which fuelled volatile drinking sessions throughout the weekend.
Meanwhile, rumours of other child rapes are swirling, some of which — if true — weren’t reported to police and if perpetrated by a youth, wont become public through the courts.
To add insult to injury, residents feel further muzzled after local Labor MP Gerry McCarthy blamed the media for the town’s turmoil. Opposition Leader Gary Higgins has since called for Mr McCarthy to resign.
“We don’t want any more national coverage,” Mr McCarthy declared in parliament on March 13. “I think the local people have learnt a very harsh lesson in when you open your doors to the media.
“We don’t need outsiders continuing to exploit our vulnerabilities and our current situation.”
News.com.au has asked Territory Families whether the department knew the four-year-old victim or her family, how many notifications they had received about her welfare and for an explanation of how the alleged January assault was handled.
A criminal lawyer from the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, who is understood to have represented the boy — believed to be aged 13 — in the Youth Justice Court, has not responded to requests for comment.
News.com.au has also contacted Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Tennant Creek Mayor Steve Edgington for a response.
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