Alice Springs in turmoil: Shock history of teenagers in alleged baby assault

The two teenagers who allegedly broke into a home in Alice Springs and left a baby with a brain bleed and a fractured skull had collectively been charged with more than 300 other offences and been bailed 35 times.

Alice Springs youths arrested following another incident involving a stolen car earlier this year. Picture: Liam Mendes

The two teenage boys who allegedly broke into a home in Alice Springs and struck a woman with a detachable metal freezer handle so hard it rebounded, hitting a two-month-old baby and causing a brain bleed and fractured skull, had collectively been charged with almost 300 other offences and bailed 35 times – and were currently on bail.

In a serious escalation in the crime crisis that has long gripped the Northern Territory, police have also charged a man with breaking into a woman’s home and raping her while she slept, ­despite the man being on a good behaviour bond at the time.

In another incident, police ­arrested two teenage boys for ­aggravated robbery on Thursday after they allegedly demanded ­alcohol from a 57-year-old man at his home, threatening him with a baseball bat and a tomahawk. One allegedly breached a suspended sentence in doing so, and the other was charged last month for exposing himself to a midwife.

The Australian can reveal shocking new details of the latest spate of violent crime to hit the Territory, as NT police on Thursday called in extra officers to conduct an around-the-clock patrol of the besieged Outback city.

The street in Alice Springs where a mother and her two-month-old babywere allegedly assaulted by home intruders on Wednesday.

While the government ­ignored calls from the NT opposition for an immediate curfew on everyone in Alice Springs, Police Commissioner Michael Murphy warned that significant criminal behaviour, including sexual ­assault, abduction and home burglaries, had spilled out of the city centre and into suburban streets.

The Australian can reveal one of the teenagers involved in the alleged home invasion – who struck the infant and its mother with the metal handle – was on bail for a string of other violent ­offences. His alleged accomplice had been charged with a separate assault just two days before the latest incident and was also on bail. The first teen, 17, has been previously charged with 19 offences and bailed 10 times, while the other, 16, had been charged with 274 offences and bailed 25 times.

Police will allege the teenagers broke through the back door of the property on Bokhara Street where the mother and her five children were. The woman’s four-year-old son immediately started screaming.

One of the teenagers began picking up property belonging to the family. When the mother attempted to stop him, he swung the freezer handle, striking her in the cheek. The handle rebounded off the mother and hit the baby, who was in her arms at the time.

While the teenager who allegedly struck the mother and baby tried to get another child to calm them down, the other young man continued to search the house. Eventually, he returned with the stolen property and both fled over a neighbour’s fence.

Police located the pair nearly two hours later. While one was arrested immediately, the other ­attempted to get away in a silver Holden Commodore. After a short pursuit, he was caught and arrested. Both were charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, unlawfully causing serious harm, aggravated assault and theft.

NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro on Thursday. Picture: Liam Mendes

The baby, who suffered a “significant skull fracture and a small bleed on the brain”, and its mother, treated for bruising and swelling to the left side of her cheek, were flown to Adelaide hospital for urgent medical intervention. The children’s father, a government employee, was at work at the time of the incident. The family have lived in Alice Springs for seven years. “It’s upsetting, it’s angering, it’s frightening, it really is,” he told The Australian.

The baby as of Thursday afternoon was in a stable condition, he said, but it continues to vary.

He said his “distraught and upset” wife is also still in hospital in Adelaide, and added he doesn’t have faith in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese being able to fix any of the issues in Alice Springs.

“It wouldn’t be the same if this was happening to him,” he said. “What do you say that doesn’t fall on deaf ears?”

In a separate incident on Saturday night, a 22-year-old man allegedly climbed into a woman’s bedroom through her window and sexually assaulted her while she was sleeping.

It is understood he removed the woman’s pants and had non-consensual vaginal sex before performing oral sex on her.

The Lyndavale Drive community housing unit block where one of the teenagers allegedly involved in the home invasion, where a mother and her two-month-old baby were seriously assaulted, was found.

Sources said the woman – a healthcare worker – woke in the middle of the alleged assault and pushed him off her before screaming and alerting her housemates.

The alleged offender then fled the area in a car. When pulled over by police, he tried to run away, smashed a bottle and threatened self-harm. However, he was tasered and taken into custody.

Sources told The Australian he allegedly admitted to police to having sex with a “white woman”.

He was charged with two counts of sexual intercourse without consent, an act of gross indecency without consent, aggravated burglary, driving unlicensed, driving unregistered and uninsured and failure to stop.

The Australian understands he was convicted and imprisoned in April 2022 for a range of other offences. He was on a good behaviour bond at the time of the latest incident.

On Thursday three teenage boys – one of whom is yet to be identified by police – used a stolen car to approach the home of a 57-year-old man. Using bodily force, a baseball bat and tomahawk, they allegedly broke through the front door of the unit block.

The man challenged them but backed down once he saw the weapons. They demanded alcohol and before he gave them a bottle of Screwball Whiskey.

NT Opposition Leader Selina Uibo. Picture: Glenn Campbell

While Mr Murphy warned there had been a marked uptick in crime over the past two weeks, The Australian has over the past two years reported on significant criminal issues – including among young people, domestic violence, and alcohol-fuelled ­incidents.

Most recently, the area has been gripped by a domestic ­violence crisis where men with violent criminal histories have been given lenient sentences only to go on and allegedly murder their partners.

Alice Springs experienced a massive surge in youth crime at the start of last year after Labor sunsetted alcohol restrictions.

The move to wind back dry community provisions that restricted the intake of alcohol in remote communities led to an explosion of violence on the streets of Alice Springs and many remote regions, and the shuttering of shops, resulting in Anthony Albanese having to fly in to address the crisis.

Picture of the man accused of raping a woman in her sleep. Picture: Facebook

Over the past two years extraordinary footage of young children and teenagers driving stolen vehicles, damaging property and handling serious weapons has repeatedly emerged, and resulted in temporary youth curfews.

Mr Murphy confirmed there has been a spike in serious crime since December 3, and said police had seen crime shift away from the city and into the suburbs. “It’s totally unacceptable, and people need to feel safe in their homes,” he said. “We’ve seen a shift from really public space and inner-city activity to activity in the suburbs. We’ve met with the team … and given really clear instructions about repurpose, as well as the operational response of four or five police cars, night police cars, calling and responding to calls for public assistance.”

Extra police patrols flocked to Alice Springs on Thursday after Mr Murphy and NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro raced to the area in a police aircraft.

Ms Finocchiaro acknowledged the “very angry people in this town who feel frustrated, scared, hurt by what has taken place”.

An Alice Springs youth is detained following an incident involving a stolen car earlier in the year.

“They deserve to be angry. This is totally unacceptable, and it is far from normal,” she said. “People deserve to be safe in their homes, and that’s exactly what we’re working hard to try and achieve after many years of neglect in this space.”

Calls by NT Opposition Leader Selina Uibo for a curfew follow previous curfews earlier in the year – when NT Labor was in government – following rioting and other violent behaviour and social disorder.