EXCLUSIVE: An Alice Springs man charged with attempted murder for what NT Police said was an attack on his partner with an “edged weapon”, allegedly almost severed the woman’s head, sources have told the NT Independent, and is another example of NT Police continuing to downplay the nature of serious alleged domestic violence and sexual assaults.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant David Munro said in a statement issued by the NT Police media unit on Tuesday, that a 44-year-old man had been charged with attempted murder, acting with an intent to cause serious harm, and engaging in conduct that contravenes a domestic violence order.
On Monday he reported that about 10:30pm Sunday police responded to reports of an aggravated assault at a house in Araluen, where the man allegedly assaulted his 39-year-old female partner with an edged weapon before harming himself.
He said the woman was still in hospital in a serious but stable condition, while the man was under guard at the Alice Springs Hospital in a stable condition.
“Thankfully the victim appears to be recovering from her injuries,” Snr Sgt Munro said.
That was all the information NT Police provided about the alleged attack and the woman’s injuries.
However multiple sources have told the NT Independent the man allegedly “tried to cut the woman’s head off.”
“From ear to ear at the back. You could see her spine. There were lots of defensive wounds,” one source said.
“Both ended up in emergency department because he cut his neck a bit.”
Another source said they had the extent of the brutality of the alleged attack confirmed with someone in the health system.
“I have had it confirmed from [redacted] her vertebrae were visible, he [allegedly] almost cut her head off. Yes, it was not a stabbing he was [allegedly] trying to take her head off.”
NT Police did not respond to questions about the injuries the woman received and why the full extent of her injuries was not made public, especially in the context of Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker’s public declaration that police would call domestic violence out on every occasion.
The latest suppression of facts being made public follows a September NT Independent article about NT Police filing an application with the Australian Classification Board to have an NT Independent story about a toddler, who had been sexually assaulted in their front yard through a fence by a man in the street, classified as “restricted content” without having to provide a reason.
According to legal sources, it would have given the police the power under Territory legislation to execute arrests, obtain computers and raid offices under the auspices of upholding the Classification of Publications, Films and Computer Games Act NT 1985. A breach of the Act carries a two-year jail term.
The Police Commissioner’s speech about domestic violence
In November 2021, Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker addressed a No More Violence breakfast in Darwin using a woman who had been set on fire by her partner in the toilet of their house in Alice Springs as a tragic example of domestic violence and lamented that it had not made national headlines.
However, police had never made the details of the death public, refusing to explain the true nature of the horror inflicted on the women, despite the offender having also died.
Mr Chakler told the breakfast: “What I want to say to everyone in this room, and the Northern Territory community is, you will not silence me”.
“That victim, only hours earlier, sent a text message to her young daughter, that said, ‘Today, your Dad is going to kill me. I love you. Please don’t cry for me’.
“And we didn’t know. And her community didn’t know. We need to do things far better. To have a victim feel so helpless, but her thoughts were to try and provide some level of support and comfort to her child, knowing what then sadly transpired.”
What Mr Chalker also did not tell that domestic violence breakfast, but the NT Independent had confirmed by several sources, was that the husband had been bailed by police on the Tuesday in Tennant Creek after breaching a domestic violence order that had the woman as the protected party.
She was incinerated on the Friday and died on the Sunday.
“Following the DVO charge, a Tennant Creek-based acting sergeant granted the soon-to-be-killer bail,” said one source, who was outraged by the Police Commissioner’s public speech.
“The husband then tracked his wife down to Alice Springs and killed her. It appears Chalker wants to grandstand on domestic violence but not come clean.
“The NT News may not have known this background. The ABC does know this background but appears to be soft peddling.”
Another source said there was a full no-contact order against the man on behalf of the woman, possibly running for five years.
Attempts to press charges against the NT Independent for revealing details of a crime
The NT Police had not notified the public about the horrendous act against the a toddler which was the subject of the Australian Classification Board decision. The NT Independent understands the boy was playing in his family’s fenced-in yard when a man approached the toddler and drew him close to the fence before the man exposed his penis and forced it into the toddler’s mouth.
That article sparked an NT Independent special investigative series exposing the police media unit’s ongoing suppression of serious sex crimes being committed against Territorians, including another disturbing story about a registered sex offender being found outside a child’s bedroom with a ‘rape kit’, a woman being raped in the street and other serious sexual offences from Alice Springs to Darwin.
The NT Independent was recognised for Best Crime Reporting at the NT Media Awards in 2021 for its series, which the national judges called an “extraordinary series of reports” which exposed the police’s failures to properly inform the public.
In July last year, Police Minister Kate Worden said the death of an Indigenous man, woman and her infant child at an outstation 25km north of Alice Spring should have been “all over the news”.
“On what would usually be national stories, we have seen minimal coverage – and tragically this is a story we know far too well here in the Territory,” she told the media.
“The nation can no longer turn their backs on the complexities and heartbreaking reality we face.”
Police had put out three press releases in the five days leading to the Minister’s press conference, simply saying the bodies of a 41-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman and a baby were found at the property.
The only other details the police provided were that they were treating it as domestic violence and that a gun was found nearby but refused to say if a gun was used, or how the trio actually died.
The Guardian reported the next day that police had not even provided details of the relationship between the two adults.
Although in light of the domestic violence statistics, there could be a presumption the man would be the perpetrator, police had not said who did the killing, or even if the three had been killed by someone else. The media could not report what they did not know.
At the time, Acting Commander Mark Grieve said he would not be releasing any further details of the incident while police were investigating and asked that the family’s privacy be respected.
“Police located a firearm at the scene and we are treating this as a domestic violence incident,” said Acting Commander Mark Grieve.
Even when she was telling the media it should have made national headlines Ms Worden, who is also the minister for domestic violence, could also not say if the man was involved in the killings, but said it was an “absolute tragedy” and involved the death of “an Indigenous woman and her child”.
Ms Worden told the media she respected police processes and “details” were “not required” for the story to be of national concern.
Police had refused to answer the NT Independent’s and other media outlets detailed questions about the deaths.
It was not until three days after her press conference that Ms Worden told ABC News the man was in possession of the gun found at the scene and police were treating it as a murder-suicide.
If you, or anyone you know, is experiencing domestic or family violence, you can call police on 131 444, or in an emergency call 000. Support services are available including 1800RESPECT, 1800 737 732 and Lifeline on 131 114.
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