Woman’s stabbing death ‘reminder of the violence women suffer every week’

NT Police Minister Kate Worden says her government is taking knife violence “extremely seriously”, following an alleged domestic violence-related stabbing outside a Darwin hotel.

Northern Territory Police Minister Kate Worden.

Northern Territory Police Minister Kate Worden says her government is taking knife violence “extremely seriously”, following an alleged domestic violence-related stabbing outside the Darwin hotel where Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney was staying.

Ms Worden said the surge in ­violence in the Territory – including the death of the 51-year-old woman in hospital after she went into the Hilton Hotel Esplanade seeking help – was a challenge the government was “grappling with and prepared to take on”.

Police and paramedics were called to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel just after 6pm on Friday after the woman entered the venue seeking help, police said.

The woman’s 56-year-old male partner was charged with murder on Saturday.

Ms Burney, who was at the hotel at the time, said her staff assisted hotel staff and paramedics, and she comforted the woman’s family. Ms Burney said as the matter was being investigated by NT Police it would be “inappropriate for me to provide any further comment at this time”.

Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy described the woman’s death as a “terrible day” for the nation.

“It’s a reminder of the violence women suffer every week,” she told Sky News

The woman died a day before Territorians gathered for an anti-crime protest on Saturday.

The protest, the second in just a few months, was attended by 400 Territorians who spoke of the despair the ongoing crime had caused their community.

Protesters called for “Declan’s Law” – in tribute to 20-year-old Declan Laverty, who was fatally stabbed while working in a Darwin BWS last month.

Ms Burney and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have both travelled to the NT in recent weeks to face an ongoing crime wave gripping the territory.

In a separate incident on Saturday night, NT Police said a 22-year-old woman allegedly stabbed two people at the Casuarina Shopping Centre in Darwin.

A 41-year-old man was treated by paramedics at the scene for leg injuries and a 29-year-old woman was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital suffering non-life-threatening injuries to her back.

The 22-year-old woman remains in custody.