‘Too much talk’: NT government faces violent crime backlash from Darwin CBD traders

A Darwin city retailer is in fear after her 21-year-old employee was assaulted by three juveniles as she walked to her car after work. Read her plea for change.

The employer of a woman assaulted in Darwin city on Tuesday afternoon wants the NT government to “stop talking” about crime and take action to address ongoing violence.

Stomp Shoes owner Gella Catis, who fronted the media in exasperation on Wednesday alongside Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro, said there had been a surge in crime and threatening behaviour in the CBD in recent weeks.

Ms Catis said she was phoned at about 5.15pm on Tuesday by the 55-year-old female employee, who was hysterical after she was attacked by three young girls in Austin Lane.

The woman had her hair pulled, was pushed to the ground and beaten by the three girls before a good Samaratin came to her and her friend’s assistance and the attackers fled.

At least one trader no longer feels safe in Darwin’s CBD.

“She’s very shaken, very bruised, very sore and very scared. ,” Ms Catis said.

“We’ve had a few incidents during the week where some youths have been intimidating the store.

“Not to say they’re the same people but there is a problem and she feels unsafe.

“(Crime’s) kind of cyclical but we’ve noticed that the gaps are getting closer, so where you’d hear something about crime once in a blue moon, it’s now becoming more apparent.

“In the past three weeks we’ve had kids banging on the window trying to enter the store and intimidating staff. So far we we’ve been lucky, until yesterday.”

Ms Catis’ husband was providing in-store security because his wife was working alone.

“Because I’m on my own today I’ve asked him to come in during the peak period just to help me out and probably will come and walk me to my car this afternoon because we’re all on edge,” she said.

Stomp Shoes' Gella Catis with CLP members Lia Finocchiaro, Steve Edgington and Jo Hersey.

“As women who own businesses I’ve never felt so unsafe and I’ve had enough.”

Ms Catis said as well as favouring an additional police presence, she wanted existing laws, such as those relating to school attendance, better enforced.

“Why aren’t these kids at school?” she said.

“It’s not the adults that we have a problem with. These kids have no fear because they know the law’s on their side, not mine.

“Why shouldn’t we have rights to feel safe, to be able to pick up our groceries, pick up our kids from school or put fuel in the car, those basic things I have to rethink doing because of those kids.”

She said the government’s new trespass laws were too complicated and dismissed explanations offered by Attorney-General Chansey Paech that government would listen to expert advice to deliver evidence-based solutions

“That doesn’t even make sense to me,” she said. “I want action.”

Goyder Square in the City of Palmerston. Picture: Keri Megelus

Ms Finocchiaro said there were “hideous” levels of crime across the Territory, pointing to another incident in Palmerston on Tuesday where two 13-year-olds were arrested after allegedly using a knife to try to carjack a young mother’s vehicle with her child inside near Goyder Square.

“This is life under Labor, where crime continues to dominate everyone’s minds, when you hear Territorians say they can no longer just simply go to the shop, you know there’s a problem," she said.

“Yesterday in parliament Labor stood there all day trying to justify their lack of action and trying to tell Territorians that it was their perception there was an issue with crime, not the reality.”

Mr Paech’s office is yet to respond to a request for further details about the experts being consulted and the evidence being provided.