Police in Australia’s Northern Territory yesterday said they had charged a man with murdering an indigenous girl, days after the five-year-old’s death sparked violent clashes in an outback town.
Jefferson Lewis, 47, was also charged with two other offenses, which cannot be publicly disclosed for legal reasons, over the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby, the name by which the victim is known in line with indigenous custom, police said in a statement.
“This is an horrific event and an horrific set of circumstances, and our thoughts remain strongly with the family,” Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole said in televised remarks from Alice Springs.
Photo: Northern Territory Police Force via AFP
Lewis, who had presented himself to one of the camps on the outskirts of the outback town, was charged on Saturday evening and would appear in court in the territory’s capital, Darwin, tomorrow, police said.
The girl’s killing and subsequent capture of the suspect, after he was found and beaten unconscious by locals, sparked protests by about 400 indigenous people near Alice Springs late on Thursday. Lewis has past convictions for physical assault and had recently been released from prison.
Some demonstrators threw projectiles and lit fires, injuring police officers and medical workers and damaging police vehicles, ambulances and fire trucks. Members of the crowd were seen in televised footage calling for payback — traditional, mostly physical, punishment in indigenous societies.
Photo: EPA
Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, local officials and Robin Granites, a spokesman for the victim’s family and an elder of the Warlpiri indigenous group, appealed for calm.
“It is time now for sorry business, to show respect for our family and have space for grieving and remembering,” Granites said in a statement. “We need to be strong for each other; we must respect family and cultural practice.”
The victim’s body was located on Thursday by one of hundreds of people searching the dense bushland around the town, after her disappearance sparked a vast, days-long search on foot, horseback and by helicopter that gripped much of the country.
Indigenous Australians account for 3.8 percent of the population and face disadvantages including discrimination, poor health and education outcomes, and high incarceration rates.
Thousands, including the victim and her family, live in camp communities where housing and services are often inadequate. One-fifth of Alice Springs citizens are indigenous.
Additional reporting by AFP
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