The administrator of the Action for Alice Facebook page was told by Assistant Police Commissioner Martin Dole that he may have committed a crime for publishing info about an indecent assault in the middle of the afternoon in Alice, but the senior police officer may have breached the criminal code himself by sending the text, a former senior police officer said.
Darren Clark posted about an alleged indecent assault that occurred in Alice Springs on Monday afternoon, which NT Police confirmed in a media release on Wednesday.
“Not Confirmed. Sexual assault at Katie’s. 2×13 year olds,” the original post said. “Not confirmed. Reports of a lady that has been sexually assaulted at katies store by x2 roughly 13 year olds.”
A second post stated: “Katie’s update it has been reported to police”.
Mr Clark said he later deleted the post after receiving a text message from Mr Dole that stated he may have committed a crime by posting the brief details.
“Darren, your Action for Alice post regarding an alleged sexual assault at Katie’s may be a criminal offence under the Sexual Offences (Evidence And Procedure) Act,” Mr Dole wrote.
“You have disclosed specifics that may identify the victim. The victim has advised she has not provided her consent for this and would like the post removed. Martin Dole”.
The police media release two days later did not provide the name of the shop but gave the street and the time: “Northern Territory Police are seeking witnesses in relation to an indecent assault that occurred in Alice Springs on Monday afternoon. It is alleged that around 3pm, a woman inside a store on Hartley Street, was approached by two male youths and indecently assaulted before the pair fled the scene.”
NT Police did not answer questions from the NT Independent, specifically asking them to explain how Mr Clark’s post contravened the Sexual Offences (Evidence And Procedure) Act.
They also refused to answer whether Mr Dole purposely sent the text message to Mr Clark telling him he was potentially committing a crime when Mr Dole was fully aware Mr Clark was not committing a crime.
Or in the alternative, whether Mr Dole properly understood the legislation and what constituted a crime when disclosing identities of victims of sexual offences.
Section 6 of that Act prohibits the publication of the name, address, school or place of employment of a complainant, or any other “particular” likely to lead to the identification of a complainant and if the publisher recklessly publishes the facts.
Although Mr Clark did not publish prohibited information, Subsection 6(2) of the Act provides a defence, provided that the information is broadcast when no changes were laid at the time of publication.
The police have not charged anyone over the alleged offence.
A former NT Police sergeant, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions for speaking out against the top brass, said the legislation clearly showed the Action for Alice post did not constitute a crime, and questioned whether Mr Dole was trying to intimidate Mr Clark, or whether he did not understand the specifics of the Act.
“The intent behind the development and promulgation of this Act is to protect parties in matters of a sexual nature that are before the court. At the time of publication there was no proceeding before the court and still an unconfirmed report,” they said.
“There is no way from the very limited information in that post could any of those details in [name, address, school or place of employment of a complainant] be ascertained by readers.
“Subsection 6(2) provides defences to 6(1) so, as there was no matter before the court at the time of the post, immediately there would be no case to answer.
“By virtue of his text, [Dole] confirmed the alleged indecent assault had actually occurred, and the NTPol were keeping it a secret. And he gave more intel then [Action for Alice] did.”
The NT Independent asked police if the text sent was Mr Dole’s initiative or if he was instructed by Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker or one of the Deputy Commissioners to send the message.
Mr Clark posts multiple times per day about crime in Alice Springs, providing more information on more crime in the region than the NT Police and has for several years.
He said he was shocked to receive a message from a senior police member for what he said was a brief, non-descript post.
“It’s frustrating, I get many messages and wait for a police media release. More times than not they don’t release it,” he said.
“In my belief I think there is overreach from the minister’s office and things are not released and covered up. If not they are downplayed. The public deserves the truth. I have no ill feeling toward Mr Dole, but I am disappointed by the message.
“There are a lot of people on the streets doing horrible things at the moment. You would think I would be the least of their worries as I’m a big supporter of our front line police and will continue to be.
“But management should concentrate on our huge problem rather than threaten the guy who fights hard for his town.”
The police source pointed to the NT Criminal Code Act when considering the seriousness of Mr Dole’s actions, and potentially the actions of a more senior police officer.
“I think the text message was intimidation, potentially an abuse of office, and as the text made the administrator remove the post, it is evidence they felt intimidated and coerced, and felt threatened by an executive officer,” they said.
The source said Mr Dole’s actions could be considered under the Improper Conduct offence section, which states that when deciding whether a person’s conduct warrants a criminal charge, if the person is a public officer, such as a police officer, it needs to be determined whether the person behaved in a way reasonably expected of a police officer.
It is also to be considered whether that person acted in an honest and reasonable belief that they were lawfully entitled to act in the way they did and the seriousness of the conduct and any result of the conduct, also needs to be considered.
Under section 200 of the Act, which covers people making threats, it states: “Any person who threatens to do any injury, or cause any detriment, of any kind to another with intent to prevent or hinder that other person from doing any act that he is lawfully entitled to do, or with intent to compel him to do any act that he is lawfully entitled to abstain from doing, is guilty of an offence and is liable to imprisonment for 2 years”.
NT Police would not comment on whether Mr Dole’s text potentially constituted a criminal act, or respond to whether his actions, and potentially the actions of one of his superiors, would be investigated.
They would also not say whether he, or potentially any of his superiors, would be suspended while the situation is investigated, as is routine for rank-and-file officers under the Police Administration Act 1978, sometimes suspended without pay.
Martin Dole’s belief in not providing ‘instant gratification’ to the public with details of crime
In March 2021, the NT Independent reported a man was facing one count of sexual intercourse without consent after it was alleged he sexually assaulted a toddler while the child played in his front yard. The man pleaded guilty and was later handed a suspended sentence with conditions.
It took NT Police four days to inform the public of the horrific incident and only then after the NT Independent first reported it despite then-police media manager Rob Cross ignoring questions. 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.
Then-Commander Dole was one of several senior police rolled out at the time to justify their actions and to try to mitigate the controversy which had been picked up by other media. He said the public wanted details of horrific crimes for “instant gratification”.
On Mix 104.9 he claimed it was not “common practice” to inform the public, that police felt releasing the information about the incident was not in the public interest, that the offender was arrested shortly after the incident, and that protecting the privacy of the victim was their chief concern.
“I think there’s a distinct difference between what’s in the public interest and what’s just interesting to the public,” Mr Dole said.
“It’s not common practice to put this stuff out in the media instantly for everyone else’s gratification.”
In 2021, the NT Police secretly filed an application with the Australian Classification Board to have the NT Independent story about the toddler who had been sexually assaulted 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 the NT Independent’s office 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.
However, their secret application was roundly rejected by the Classification Board because it was an article reporting facts.
This week the NT Independent reported 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, according to sources, which was another example of NT Police continuing to downplay the nature of serious domestic violence and sexual assaults, or suppressing them entirely.
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