23yo pleads guilty to Alice Springs child abduction which ended in Coober Pedy, South Australia

A man has pleaded guilty to the cross state abduction of an NT child which ended hundreds of kilometres away from the boy’s home in SA – but that’s not the end of the story. Find out why.

Alice Springs Local Court. Picture: Gera Kazakov

The fate of a man who was arrested in Coober Pedy with a boy he abducted from Alice Springs will be known in two months.

It comes as the court tries to make sense of what the prosecution labelled an “increasingly convoluted” story.

Last week the 23-year-old man – who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the 12-year-old boy involved – pleaded guilty in the Alice Springs Local Court to a single charge of abducting a child under 16 years of age.

But Judge Carly Ingles adjourned the matter for two months for further submissions ahead of his sentencing, citing “there are many things that are just not explained” which “need explanation in a case such as this”.

Over two days, the court had heard how the man became friends with the boy, who he later abducted from Alice Springs on February 27.

A day later, the man was found with the boy in Coober Pedy – 687km south – where he was arrested.

Coober Pedy, South Australia. Picture: File

Prosecutor Ruth Morley told the court the man had taken the boy out of Alice Springs in a blue Toyota LandCruiser, which was driven by a friend and part of a party of friends travelling to Adelaide.

Automatic licence plate recognition in SA spotted the LandCruiser once the group crossed the border, leading to the man’s arrest and the boy’s recovery.

The border between the Northern Territory and South Australia. Photo: Emma Murray

Before the abduction, the man had previously faced court twice for driving with methamphetamine in his system.

In September 2024, his licence was suspended for three months and a conviction recorded after he pleaded guilty for drug driving with methamphetamine in his system.

He again pleaded guilty to drug driving and driving unlicensed on February 12, where another conviction was recorded.

Defence lawyer Harvie Stiller detailed the man’s series events to the court, which spanned back into 2024 when he befriended the boy.

His client was not addicted to drugs, Mr Stiller said, and before the abduction, the man, the child, and other family had gone on two separate holidays together.

The man had a “well meaning, wholesome relationship” with the child, according to Mr Stiller, who said it was one he didn’t plan on happening but “embraced it when it did”.

Mr Stiller said his client became increasingly concerned for the child’s welfare, and told the court the boy’s mother was allegedly using methamphetamines, which his client confrontedher over.

The Alice Springs town centre. Both the child and the man lived in Alice Springs prior to the abduction. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

This caused a falling-out between the pair.

The man took the child to police to get him into proper care, Mr Stiller said, but the boy was “incessantly” texting the man, requesting he take of care him.

This was one of many points Ms Morley opposed, as no evidence of these texts had been tendered to the courts, she said.

She said “the story’s becoming increasingly convoluted and distracting” and “it’s all just becoming increasingly fantastic in terms of explanation”.

“(The man) as an adult would understand quite clearly that children are not to be taken away from their lawful carers,” she said.

Judge Ingles ordered pre-sentence reports for the man, as she was concerned he was displaying “self-righteousness”, and continued his bail.

He was ordered to return to court on June 16.

Originally published as 23yo pleads guilty to Alice Springs child abduction which ended in Coober Pedy, South Australia