Great-grandmother assaulted in Nightcliff carpark on way to cafe

The daughter of an 85-year-old Darwin great-grandmother assaulted in a Nightcliff carpark has let loose on the Territory’s ‘broken system’. Read what happened.

A Darwin grandmother has been left injured and badly shaken after being mugged by three young girls in broad daylight, with her daughter now appealing directly to the Chief Minister to fix a “broken” system.

Poppy Politis-Stoddart said the three girls, two of whom were aged under 12, assaulted her 85-year-old mother Despina Politis in the carpark of the Nightcliff Sports Club on Wednesday afternoon.

The third person, a 19-year-old woman, has been charged with robbery.

The NT News has been told the woman walked from the dirt part of the social club carpark from where the older girl allegedly approached her from behind and grabbed her bag, knocking her to the ground in the process.

Poppy Politis-Stoddart at Glenti Festival in 2021. Picture: Che Chorley

The two younger girls, who a witness said could have been as young as eight, followed the older teen down Ixora Street.

In a social media post, Ms Politis-Stoddart said her elderly mum had been attacked from behind after she got out of her car and was later treated for her injuries and left badly shaken.

In the post, Ms Politis-Stoddart took up the issue directly with Chief Minister Natasha Fyles and the Labor Government she leads for overseeing a “broken” system and “continually dish(ing) up excuses”.

Ms Politis-Stoddart began by questioning whether it was still safe for people like her mother, who has been a Darwin resident since 1959, to meet a friend for an afternoon coffee.

“Upon getting out of her car, she was mugged from behind, thrown to the ground and her handbag was stolen in what can only be a targeted attack from gutless predators,” she wrote.

“The CCTV footage showed that (the) offenders were three teenage girls.

“None of these girls showed any care, concern or respect for an elderly woman who has been a local resident and active contributor to this community for nearly 65 years.”

Ms Politis-Stoddart said her mother was left shaking, crying and in pain on the ground before being assisted by two passers-by, with police arriving promptly and the offenders identified through phone tracking.

Nightlcliff Sport Club car park where this week’s incident took place. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Ms Politis-Stoddart said two of the attackers were released to the care of an adult because they were aged under 12 following changes to the age of criminal responsibility made this year by the NT Government.

“Chief Minister, regardless of what is happening in the courts, the fact this is even happening in our own community confirms the system is broken,” she wrote.

“You are in charge of a political party that continually dishes up excuses, under the guise of protectionism and weak laws that do not provide any consequences for the offenders.

“There is nothing to protect the general public from what is simply disgusting behaviour perpetrated on innocent members of the community.

“Why do we constantly end up having to see perpetrators paraded as the victims, when our focus should be on the actual victims themselves.”

Ms Politis-Stoddart said she had spoken with Ms Fyles about law and order previously “and I have not seen anything that your government has done to protect the public”.

“We are allowing a system for a new generation to get away with blatant crimes every single day,” she said.

“How many people need to be abused, robbed, traumatised, injured and possibly die from these crimes?”

Ms Politis-Stoddart said her parents had left a considerable legacy during 65 years in Darwin, but questioned the legacy of the Fyles Labor Government.

“I cannot see how the legacy of your government is contributing to our society at all,” she said.

“I have said this to you personally and also asked you the question – will it take until someone’s family is affected directly before you act?

“Well it has now happened to our family. Will you wait until it happens to you and your family?”

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the attack was “horrible and gutless”.

“A cowardly assault on a senior Territorian is the lowest of the low,” she said.

“I know the victim and her family well and I am so sorry that this has happened to her.

“Territorians have had a gutful of crime, I have had a gutful of crime. I understand the frustration and anger because I feel it too.

“Everything we are trying to do is about breaking the decades-long cycle of crime in the Territory. It’s why we have more police, it’s why we have more consequences, but it’s also why we have more programs that are trying to stop kids from living a life where they think this kind of disgusting behaviour is normal.

“Doing one of those things without the other makes the problem worse, not better. We have to do all of it, all at once and all the time.

“We’re also doing more to get kids off the street unsupervised. And we need to do more to hold the families of young people accountable.”

The 19-year-old has been bailed to appear in Wadeye local court on January 16, 2024.