Alice Springs pastor Terry Medling faces child assault charge

The self-declared longest-serving missionary in Alice Springs has been accused of physical assaults on young Aboriginal children, but says he’s an innocent ‘man of God’.

Alice Springs pastor Terry Medling. Picture: Facebook

The self-declared longest-serving missionary in Alice Springs has been accused of physical assaults on young Aboriginal children, but says he’s an innocent “man of God”.

Pastor Terry Medling was last month served by police with a notice to appear in court on a charge of aggravated assault against a 13-year-old girl.

The incident is understood to involve him allegedly grabbing the girl by the arm and trying to drag her out of a car, after one of his Sunday church services at the Aboriginal town camp known as Old Timers, in February last year. Other children have separately alleged to The Weekend Australian that the 73-year-old non-denominational pastor hit or was physically rough with them.

The children described instances of Mr Medling allegedly striking out with a wooden spoon or “slapping” them.

The Weekend Australian last week reported police had quietly charged a longstanding community figure from Alice Springs with assault. It can now be revealed the community figure was Mr Medling, who has been preaching in town camps in Alice Springs for 40 years.

Alice Springs residents including the principal of Indigenous school Yipirinya, Gavin Morris, have raised concerns about Mr Medling with police and the Territory Families department.

Dr Morris, 46, was himself arrested and charged last week with aggravated physical assaults on five Aboriginal boys from his school. At his first court appearance Tuesday, Dr Morris denied the allegations through his lawyer, Luke Officer.

Gavin Morris, principal of Alice Springs Indigenous school Yipirinya, departs court this week. Picture: Liam Mendes

Mr Medling too has denied harming any children and says he is being slandered and targeted for an unknown reason as “pay back”. He said police had brought the aggravated assault charge after he became “angry” at a teenage girl over her repeatedly taking other children away from his town camp church services.

“I don’t think I ever touched her or anything. They’ve made a false accusation. She’s got some mental things. She’s caused trouble everywhere too,” he said.

A current Ochre Card from the NT government cleared him to work with children, he said.

He had “never” forcefully hit or been rough with children.

“What I’ve done is, when they muck up in my bus, I’ve got a wooden spoon, just a tap on the hand,” he said. “Because they’re swearing or fighting. Once they see me waving it, they straighten up. Or if they are real naughty, they might hide under the seat.”

He added: “They’re making it up to condemn me, to slander me, because I’m a man of God, standing up for truth. The devil’s working, the enemy’s working.”

Mr Medling said his cars had been stolen and written off, his home vandalised, and a young boy he knew recently turned up at his home with a wheel spanner and “tried to kill me”.

Some Alice Springs residents including church followers and Aboriginal parents he is assisting say they remain staunchly supportive of him.

“I’ve been the longest missionary in this town,” he said. “I’ve been with Aboriginal people 40 or 50 years. Through my message I’ve brought a lot off the alcohol. We’ve baptised 32 in the last two weeks. Genuine conversions.”

He confirmed he had many interactions with children, taking them swimming at the local pool and on long drives, and buying them food and treats at fast-food outlets. “The reason I take kids out is because I feel for them. They’re bored at the camps and hungry,” he said.

He insisted he always had another adult present, but local residents say they recently saw him driving a young boy around in his bus during school hours with no other passengers.

A friend of Mr Medling’s, Mick Byrne, said he and others had warned the pastor not to be alone with children because of the risk of false accusations.

Mr Medling would take children out at weekends for a drive as an act of kindness, he said.

“A lot of times, it was only him by himself, and no other adults there, which if anyone wants to, they can open their mouth and accuse him of left, right and centre, of anything,” Mr Byrne said.

Asked if it would surprise him if Mr Medling was still driving children around alone, Mr Byrne said: “He does sometimes but he’s been told that he shouldn’t do it. I’ve told him and a few other people have told him.”

Question: “What about being physically rough with children?”

Answer: “Define physically rough.”

Question: “Like, slap a child?”

Answer: “He has a couple … sometimes, when they’re naughty, he will hit them. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Question: “How hard?”

Answer: “He’s got a stick in his bus … he only taps them lightly.”

One young girl alleged to The Weekend Australian that Mr Medling struck her on the hand and bottom with a wooden spoon for being “naughty”.

“He hit me in the bum. With a wooden spoon. Hard,” she said.

“I felt pain. A lot of pain. He hit my brother so hard his hand was really pink. With the wooden spoon. If we don’t put our hand out he’ll hit us in the bum with the wooden spoon.”

A boy, 13, said: “He used to pick us up and take us around in a small van. If we do something wrong, then (he’ll) slap us.”

NT police did not answer questions from The Weekend Australian about whether Mr Medling’s assault charge affected his possession of an Ochre Card to work with children.

“NT Police can confirm that a 73-year-old man was issued a notice to appear on 31 July 2024 for a historic allegation of aggravated assault on a child under the age of 16,” a police spokesman said.

“The incident is alleged to have occurred in Alice Springs between February and August 2023. Investigations into the incident remain ongoing and at this stage no further information can be provided.”

Mr Medling is due to appear in court in Alice Springs on the aggravated physical assault charge on September 25.

In the separate case against Yipirinya’s principal, court documents show Dr Morris has been charged with aggravated assault of five boys who were 8, 9, 12, 12 and 13 at the time. Police allege that each assault had two aggravating features, namely that the children suffered harm and that they were under the age of 16.

Know more about this story? Contact David Murray on [e-mail]