Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Commander Martin Dole regarding the Sexual Assault of a 3 year old.

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Katie Woolf spoke with Commander Martin Dole regarding the Sexual Assault of a 3 year old. · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Very disturbing news yesterday that a twenty one year old
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  Speaker 1: man has been arrested now following the sexual assault of
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  Speaker 1: a three year old boy in Karama. Now joining me
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  Speaker 1: in the studio right now is Commander Martin Dole from
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to your commander.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 2: Now, firstly, what happened on Thursday last week?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Katie, there's been a lot of speculation, there's been
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  Speaker 3: a lot of false media and false narrative about this,
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  Speaker 3: and I just want to correct the record in relation
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  Speaker 3: to that. So, there was an incident last Thursday in
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  Speaker 3: Karma where a three year old child was assaulted in
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  Speaker 3: their front yard. The male offender was apprehended a very
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  Speaker 3: short time later and has stayed in custody since that time.
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  Speaker 2: What has that offender been charged with.
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  Speaker 3: He's been charged with sexual intercourse without consent and gross
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  Speaker 3: in decency with a minor.
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  Speaker 1: So you know, it is an assault, obviously, but it
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  Speaker 1: sounds like a very sexual assault, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: Every sexual assault is a serious sexual assault.
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  Speaker 2: No doubt about it.
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  Speaker 1: But we are talking about here a three year old,
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  Speaker 1: a three year old and a twenty one year old. Now,
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  Speaker 1: where are these investigations at at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: So, as I said earlier, the offender is still in custody. Obviously,
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  Speaker 3: our Sex Crimes and Child Abused Task Force detectives are
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  Speaker 3: still conducting investigations and the matter is currently before the court.
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  Speaker 2: Was that child known to the twenty one year.
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  Speaker 3: Old It's not believed. So no, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: And so is it correct that the three year old
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  Speaker 2: was in their yard in their home in Karama?
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  Speaker 3: The child was in the front yard behind a secured fence.
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  Speaker 2: And a stranger has somehow sexually assaulted this three year old.
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  Speaker 3: That's correct, Yes, that's what's alleged.
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  Speaker 1: This look for me, this is such a concerning story
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  Speaker 1: as a parent, and I think that you know, there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot to take in here, but the biggest thing
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  Speaker 1: for me to take in is that I think to
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  Speaker 1: myself as a parent, my children safe in their yard?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I would like to hope that everyone has the
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  Speaker 3: confidence that your children are safe in their yards.
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  Speaker 1: Katie.
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  Speaker 3: This is an a barrant crime. People that perpetrate sex
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  Speaker 3: offenses of any type are individuals, and I'd just like
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  Speaker 3: to point out the Northern Territory Police are here to
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  Speaker 3: keep people safe. We were notified at seven oh six
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  Speaker 3: that evening. Police arrived at seven sixteen, and the offender
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  Speaker 3: was located and arrested in custody at seven twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: So it does sound as though things have happened really
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  Speaker 1: very quickly in terms of the police getting there incredibly
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  Speaker 1: quickly to help that family and to help that little boy.
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  Speaker 1: And he was that man, the twenty one year old
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  Speaker 1: was apprehended very quickly. Was that man apprehended by family members?
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  Speaker 3: No, he was apprehended by police.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, but was sorry? Was he was he?
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  Speaker 1: I guess held on site at that home by the
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  Speaker 1: family of that little boy.
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  Speaker 3: No, the offender fled the scene. He was. The incident
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  Speaker 3: was witnessed by a passerby that was jogging. The passer
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  Speaker 3: by alerted the family members that were in the house.
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  Speaker 3: She used the family member's phone to phone the police,
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  Speaker 3: and the offenders fled the scene. So police arrived a
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  Speaker 3: short time later, like I said, and located the offender
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  Speaker 3: in the area. He wasn't at the scene, He wasn't
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  Speaker 3: apprehended at the scene. He was located a short distance
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  Speaker 3: away by police who responded very quickly.
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  Speaker 1: Why has it taken so long for the public to
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  Speaker 1: be notified about this incident.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's a really good point, Katie. I think
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  Speaker 3: there's a distinct difference between what's in the public interest
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  Speaker 3: and what's just interesting to the public. In this instance,
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  Speaker 3: this offender was apprehended within fifteen minutes of the offense happening.
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  Speaker 3: At the forefront of everything we do with sexual offending
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  Speaker 3: is the privacy and the care of the victims. So
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  Speaker 3: in this regard, there was no public safety concerns. The
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  Speaker 3: offender was in custody, we knew who he was, and
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  Speaker 3: the family, as you can understand, were distraught. And it's
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  Speaker 3: not our and we've got legislative preventions as well. It's
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  Speaker 3: not common practice to put this stuff out in the
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  Speaker 3: media instantly for everyone else's gratification. It's our At the
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  Speaker 3: foremost of our thinking is protection of the victim, their
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  Speaker 3: rights and how they're traveling.
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  Speaker 1: Look for me, it's certainly not you know, not for
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  Speaker 1: my gratification to find out about it. In fact, I
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  Speaker 1: think that most members of the public would be feeling
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  Speaker 1: absolutely mortified by.
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  Speaker 2: The fact that this has happened.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, from what you've said to me this morning,
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  Speaker 1: this offender was not known to the family from what
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  Speaker 1: you can gather, So I just don't understand how it's
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  Speaker 1: not actually a matter of public importance that people are
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  Speaker 1: aware of this, that there was a stranger to this
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  Speaker 1: little boy who has sexually assaulted him in his yard.
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  Speaker 3: Because the offender was apprehended Cadie, he was in custy.
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  Speaker 3: So I do understand there is some public concern, but
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  Speaker 3: our primary focus is the rights of the victim, the
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  Speaker 3: protection of the victim, and how they're traveling. So we've
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  Speaker 3: got some legislative preventions on giving too much detail. It's
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  Speaker 3: not common practice to release every detail on every sexual
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  Speaker 3: offense in the lawn territory. And what we do see
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  Speaker 3: is we see further questioning and digging in to try
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  Speaker 3: and get details that I'm bordering very close on breaching
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  Speaker 3: the legislation and breaching the privacy of the victim, and
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  Speaker 3: breaching certain legislative difficulties that we have in releasing that information.
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  Speaker 2: So look for me.
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  Speaker 1: I guess you know, you and I could argue about
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  Speaker 1: whether it is in the public interest or whether people
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  Speaker 1: should be notified about incidents like this, And you know
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  Speaker 1: I'm in the media, so I'm always going to say
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  Speaker 1: that I think that people should actually be aware of
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  Speaker 1: what's going on in the community. But also as a parent,
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  Speaker 1: I'm always going to say that because I think to myself,
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  Speaker 1: you know, as a parent of two little kids, I
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  Speaker 1: actually want to know if this kind of thing's happening
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  Speaker 1: in the community, so that I'm aware of what kind
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  Speaker 1: of people we're dealing with. Sometimes, yeah, absolutely, Cannie.
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  Speaker 3: So there's there's no hiding here. There's no secrets. It's
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  Speaker 3: a public record that this offender is in court, that's
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  Speaker 3: publicly available. It did take us several days to continue investigations.
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  Speaker 3: The offenders stayed in custody the whole time, and on Monday,
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  Speaker 3: when the matter was before the court, we put out
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  Speaker 3: a general public release with general description on the incident.
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  Speaker 3: That's our common practice in sexual assault matters. Like I said,
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  Speaker 3: we have to be careful about releasing information that leads
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  Speaker 3: to the identification of the victim. And at the foremost
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  Speaker 3: of our thinking is the protection of the victim and
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  Speaker 3: their family.
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  Speaker 1: Should the government, I know, the Minister and the Chief
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  Speaker 1: Minister be notified when something be serious happens.
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  Speaker 3: Ministerial notification was made in relation to this incident, and.
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  Speaker 1: I understand as well that the Children's Commissioner had been
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  Speaker 1: on the ABC earlier this morning saying that she was
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  Speaker 1: not notified.
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  Speaker 2: Is that something that should happen.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not aware of that, Katie, But in general circumstances
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  Speaker 3: in child sex offenders or defences against children, we've got
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  Speaker 3: a close relationship with the Children's commission and we make
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  Speaker 3: those notifications.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, people in the area of Karama have been really
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  Speaker 1: concerned for some time about some of the issues that
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  Speaker 1: they've got with alcohol issues, people you know, behaving.
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  Speaker 2: Badly in that suburb.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, are we dealing with here the impacts of
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  Speaker 1: some really bad anti social behavior in the suburb of Karama.
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  Speaker 3: Look, Katie, I think crime is everyone's issue, and police
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  Speaker 3: as always open to working with the community to make
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  Speaker 3: a safer community for the Norn territory. And I think
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  Speaker 3: in this instance you've got a great example of the
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  Speaker 3: community working with police, notifying the police, and this offender
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  Speaker 3: being apprehended in a very short period of time. So
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  Speaker 3: thank you to the people of Karama, thank you to
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  Speaker 3: that jogger that assisted us in apprehending this person. And
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  Speaker 3: I think the community and police do work together, and
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  Speaker 3: I encourage them to continue to do that and report
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  Speaker 3: crime to police as it happens.
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  Speaker 1: Can I just ask, you know, obviously the jogger notified
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  Speaker 1: that family. If the jogger hadn't notified that family, is
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  Speaker 1: there potential that this twenty one year old could have actually,
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  Speaker 1: you know, sexually assaulted that little boy and also you know,
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  Speaker 1: encountered other children.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know, Katie, It's not helpful to speculate. In
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  Speaker 3: this instance. We did apprehend him and that offending ceased
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  Speaker 3: after that jogger intervened. So look, anything's possible in the world.
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  Speaker 3: But what happened is what happened, and he was apprehended
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  Speaker 3: very quickly, and that jogger is to be thanked by
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  Speaker 3: the community and the police for their assistance.
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  Speaker 2: Commanded.
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  Speaker 1: There will be some people listening this morning who are
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  Speaker 1: still feeling really concerned, worried that, you know, their kids
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  Speaker 1: aren't safe in their yards upon hearing this situation. What
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  Speaker 1: is your message for territory parents.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I don't think there's a safety issue in the
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  Speaker 3: Northern Territory. We're always going to have people that commit
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  Speaker 3: to borign offenses. That's why the Northern Territory Police are
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  Speaker 3: there to investigate and apprehend these people. I think the
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  Speaker 3: Northern Territory are safe as they can be. I think
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  Speaker 3: the police do a great job, the community do a
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  Speaker 3: great job in partnership with the police, and I don't
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  Speaker 3: think there's are concerned for people out there to be
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  Speaker 3: alarmed that we're overrun with violent offenders that are going
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  Speaker 3: to commit offenses in our front yard between behind lock gates.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Commander Martin Dole, we are going to have to
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  Speaker 1: leave it there. We've got a full morning lined up.
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  Speaker 1: We really appreciate you popping in to speak to us
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  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for your Tom Katie, thank you.