Youth had 85 occurrences with police before allegedly ramming cops with stolen car in Alice Springs

The NT News can reveal the amount of ‘occurrences’ a group of youth offenders had with police before they allegedly rammed into them with stolen cars in Alice Springs. Find out more.

Northern Territory Police in Alice Springs. Picture: Gera Kazakov

The new Attorney General says the CLP will “stop this rot” after it was revealed one of the youths allegedly ramming police with stolen cars in Alice Springs had 85 prior ‘occurrences’ with the cops.

This masthead can reveal of the 10 youths arrested after allegedly ramming police with stolen cars in Alice Springs on Saturday, eight had multiple occurrences with police – with one having 85 recorded.

With both stolen cars now located, police allege the youth culprits grabbed the keys from “an unlocked cabin” at an Alice Springs caravan park.

Once the cars were stolen, police allege the youths drove the cars dangerously through the Alice Springs CBD – targeting and ramming police cars that tried to stop them, police said.

Police said 10 arrests were made over the incidents.

The NT News understands four of the youths were taken into the care of a responsible adult.

Attorney General and Minister for Tourism and Hospitality Marie-Clare Boothby, who was in Alice Springs for the Masters Games on Saturday, latched onto the events ahead of parliament resuming on Tuesday – where the CLP is anticipated to lower the age of criminal responsibility from age 12 to 10.

Marie-Clare Boothby as the new NT Cabinet is sworn in at Government House. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“This was another sickening event in Alice Springs where our community and our police were terrorised by a bunch of out of control kids,” she said.

She called the weekend’s events a “result of Labor’s catch, kiss and release system in action, which we have inherited”.

“It’s not acceptable. The community is demanding better and that’s why they voted in the CLP to stop this kind of rot,” she said.

Dropping the age of criminal responsibility was a CLP election promise – with Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro promising to achieve it within one-sitting week of parliament. 

The proposal drew condemnation from National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds – as well as others – who labelled it as condemning “first nations children to a lifetime of abuse, deprivation and disadvantage”.

National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Hitting back, Ms Boothby doubled-down on the government’s stance and slammed down-south “do-gooders” who have criticised the CLP’s tough on crime approach.

“For all those do-gooders down south telling us we cannot change laws to break this cycle and keep the community safe – where were they at 3am on Saturday morning,” she said.

“No doubt they were nice and safe and warm at home thousands of kilometres away from Alice Springs.”