Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Police Commander Danny Bacon provides details on a brutal attack against a young girl at a Darwin bus exchange

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Police Commander Danny Bacon provides details on a brutal attack against a young girl at a Darwin bus exchange · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that the Northern Territory Police are calling for
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: information in relation to the assault of a twelve year
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: old girl that occurred on Sunday evening in Casurina. So
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in a statement released yesterday, police said that the female
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: victim and her friend we're traveling on bus number four
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: from perap to Casurina when she was approached by a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: female adult and allegedly assaulted. Now joining me in the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: studio to tell us more about the situation is the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: commander for the Darwin Region, Danny Bacon. Good morning to you.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Good morning Kadie.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Now, Commander, firstly, can you tell us a little bit
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: more about how police became aware of this incident.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Well, please come aware of this incident through the contact
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: of transit officers and through that network, and obviously we've
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: responded in that capacity. So credit goes to certating the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: transport officers and the local security at the bus exchange
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: of cash Arena. It's just an borran and disgusting attack
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  Speaker 2: on a lady in our community, as you're aware, and
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the organizations called out for any witnesses to the particular
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: matter itself as currently under investigation by our Serious Crime
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: unit and they're making active inquiries today in regards to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: identifying and apprehending the set offenders.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: So Danny just tell us, you know, essentially, what's happened here.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Has this twelve year old girl and her friend gotten
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: on the bus to go out to Casurina and what's unfolded?
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  Speaker 2: It appears the attack was with unprovoked. It appears that
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: there was no relationship between the victim or the offenders,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: and the actual assault has been unprovoked for this twelve
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: year old girl, which is obviously quite distressing and traumatic
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: for her. Obviously, through the intervention of the transport officers
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: and the security there lessened the assault at the exchange itself,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: and that itself, I suppose has also assisted us and
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: our investigation. So we have a number of leads there
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: that we can follow up through on.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: So was there any kind of exchange or altercation or
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: anything like that between this twelve year old and this
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: adult before been unfolded?
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: It appears not. But as I said, the matter is
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: under investigation at this junction of time until we get
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: to speak to all parties and other witnesses that come forward,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: then we won't have a full picture of the circumstance
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: of events other than as has indicated. It's just a
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  Speaker 2: borrent and disgusting act on a very young child on
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: on our bus network.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds that way like I've got a daughter
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  Speaker 1: that's a little bit younger than twelve eleven and a half,
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  Speaker 1: and I think that is shocking stuff. I find it
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  Speaker 1: really pretty terrible that you know that they're not able
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to get on a bus and go to Caserina, do
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: their you know, do some shopping or whatever they've gone
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: to do, hang out with their mates without something like
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: this happening. It's terrible. Can you tell me? Was she injured?
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, she was out of the hospital, a bruising number
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: of scratches. We go the assault itself, but there's also
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: some further medical inquiries are going on to see there's
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: anything perhaps a bit more significant that that's come out
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: of that assault itself.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And so then she's gotten off the bus. But then
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  Speaker 1: they've had another crack when they've arrived at the at
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  Speaker 1: the interchange.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, and they said through the intervention of the transfit
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: of security, that assaults being desisted or stopped and the
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: offenders of the camp from there.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't that long ago that you and
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I had spoken as well about that young boy that
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: a similar situation unfolded or it was different, but a
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: situation at the Casuarina interchange where young autistic fellaw who'd
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: been assaulted quite badly. I mean, it is like, it's shocking.
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  Speaker 1: It must be bad even for you guys, for very
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: experienced police officers to be getting called about this kind
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: of thing.
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  Speaker 2: I think any offense is particularly against a youth, is
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: a barrant any description whatsoever, and I'm sort of downplaying
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: that any sort of sense it all. But I really
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: reiterate to yourself and certainly the listeners itself. At violent
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: crime within the Greater day In area over the last
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: three months compared to the previous calendar year, I've actually
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: gone down ten percent. That's no condolences for the particular
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: victims of these significant crimes by any means. I certainly
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: don't mean to downplay that night, but certainly I'd like
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: to provide level of comfort to those victims and those
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: victims families that we will go utmost to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that we hold these offenders to account and bring them
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: before court.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Commander, Can I just ask we know that we've seen
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: in recent in the recent few days. Obviously we've had
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: bus drivers taking action and calling for greater protection on busses.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: That's a very separate issue from the Territory Police. Last Friday, though,
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  Speaker 1: we heard from the watch commander that two transit officers
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: were spat at Do you think that we're seeing increased
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: incidents on buses and at those exchanges or is it
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: just that we've had a few quite prominent incidents.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: I think you've just had a few quite prominent incidents
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: in a short period of time. Certainly, the overall trended
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: is not as increasing at all. Certainly we will wear
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: trends themselves, certainly at the bus exchanges predominantly Casherina and Palleerston,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and we work closely well daily with our transit officers
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: both in those peak periods of times, particularly before and
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: after school when there's greater attendance there. And we also
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: find the trends are particularly the later bus scheduling so
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: that the last bus leaving exchanged those sorts of things.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: So we work in conjunction with the transit officers on
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: a daily basis with alcohol policing operations team, and likewise
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I meet weekly with the management team of the transport
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: offices themselves and they collectively with other agencies themselves. We
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: look at those issues and trends itself, by and large,
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  Speaker 2: youth seem to be the particular I suppose consume around
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: those bus exchanges. However, on the network itself predominantly some
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: of those offenses revolve around adults and intoxication al certain
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: alcohol as part of it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: It does sound though, as the as the transit officers,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you know, like from the early days obviously in terms
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: of them being able to operate in the way that
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: they are now able to, but it does sound as
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  Speaker 1: though that's providing some assistance.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I can't speak wholly enough of the transport officers and
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: the work that they do. It's fantastic. As I said,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: they're connected to us daily. We can respond quickly. There's
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: that direct contact, so we have a great working relationship.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: As I said, we meet and discuss daily on wishes
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: and trends and where their pressure points are and where
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: our pressure points are. And they're collectively working together for us,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: but also you know, across working with Laroche Nation, working
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: with Crown Lands, working with a range of other different
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: service providers to certainly assist in that area.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Commander, we are going to have to get ready to
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: wrap up, but I just want to ask very quickly.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: We are due to catch up with the mother of
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: a young girl who had a rock hurled at her
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: over the weekend at a party in Palmerston as she
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: lays in hospital right now as a result of that.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: From a police perspective, is there any update in terms of,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: you know, the events that unfolded at that party.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I can't provide any specific update for that particular matter
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: other than the state Again, it's another a barrant act
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: a young member of our community that was not called
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: for it anyone innocent victim. So that matter is itself
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: is under investigation itself, and you would have seen a
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: lot of the footage within social media. We're just asking
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: people to actually, you know, supply that to police and
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: ford that to police and contact police so that will
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: assist us in our investigation and particularly uprehending that particular offender.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, come on to Danny Bacon. We really appreciate
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thanks so much for having a
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: chat with us this morning.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you