Latest / The Front / Death in paradise prompts NT bail crackdown

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Death in paradise prompts NT bail crackdown · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday April twenty five, twenty twenty five. The lawyer
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: representing Bruce Lemon in It to Woomba rape trial claims
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  Speaker 1: important evidence like witness statements and CCTV footage is missing
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  Speaker 1: the matter who has been adjourned until late May while
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  Speaker 1: the prosecution and defense get organized. The former Liberal staffer
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  Speaker 1: hasn't entered a plea, but has indicated he'll fight the chargers.
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  Speaker 1: Australians are gathering to commemorate Anzac Day around the nation. Today.
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  Speaker 1: You can read about the last flight out of Vietnam
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  Speaker 1: following the fall of Saigon in nineteen seventy five and
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  Speaker 1: the loyal Vietnamese embassy staff left behind right now at
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  Speaker 1: the Australian dot Com dot au. The Northern Territory will
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  Speaker 1: require judges to refuse bail to alleged offenders if community
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  Speaker 1: safety is at risk. That's in new laws the government
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  Speaker 1: hopes to pass when it urgently recalls Parliament on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: Following the stabbing death of a seventy one year old
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  Speaker 1: supermarket worker, an eighteen year old man who was on
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  Speaker 1: bail at the time. Is the alleged offender today? What's
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  Speaker 1: gone so wrong in the Territory. In the early evenings,
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  Speaker 1: the residents of Nightcliff in Darwin get out into the
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  Speaker 1: warm twilight air cycling and jogging along the beach where
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  Speaker 1: the land meets the team or sea. Nightcliffe's median property
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  Speaker 1: price is just under one million dollars. One of the
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  Speaker 1: territory's most exclusive places to live, and for a long
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  Speaker 1: time it is felt a world away from the really
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  Speaker 1: gritty crime that's one of the Territory's hottest political issues.
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  Speaker 1: Until Wednesday afternoon, while the afterwork crowd was getting out
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  Speaker 1: into the evening, Nightcliff's local friendly grosser, Linford Feek was
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  Speaker 1: living out his last moments.
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  Speaker 2: Laid Darwin shop owner has been fatally stabbed after confronting
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  Speaker 2: a man trying to steal from his store. Let's go
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  Speaker 2: back to Matt Cunning and he's live at the scene.
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  Speaker 3: Matt.
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  Speaker 2: Has the offender been caught? He was apprehended just after midnight, Pete.
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  Speaker 2: This is a shocking incident that.
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  Speaker 1: Will Territory Police said. An eighteen year old suspect handed
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  Speaker 1: himself in early on Thursday morning.
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  Speaker 3: The matter is currently under investigation by our major crime
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  Speaker 3: team with support from a myriad of other specialist areas.
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  Speaker 1: As the sun rose over Darwin. On Thursday, disturbing details
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  Speaker 1: about that alleged assailant emerged.
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  Speaker 4: His birthday was just earlier this week. He turned eighteen
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  Speaker 4: years old. Very young boy, you could say.
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  Speaker 1: Leah Mendez is a reporter with The Australian.
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  Speaker 4: Now there's a bunch of charges there. Two counts of
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  Speaker 4: aggravated assault, threatening injury, deprivation of liberty, to counts of
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  Speaker 4: sexual intercourse without consent, two counts of sexual intercourse with
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  Speaker 4: a child under the age of sixteen years of age,
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  Speaker 4: resisting police, two counts of assaulting police and possession of
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  Speaker 4: metham fettermin So you know, these are incredibly serious charges
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  Speaker 4: and there are a lot of questions right across the
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  Speaker 4: territory by people who are wandering why was this boy on.
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  Speaker 1: Bail and so what do we know about that? Why
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  Speaker 1: was he on bail?
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  Speaker 4: The interesting thing is that he was first taken into
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  Speaker 4: custody towards the end of December in twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 4: There was an out of court bail hearing heard by
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  Speaker 4: an on call judge sign over the telephone. He was
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  Speaker 4: still in the watchhouse when it happened, and it appears
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  Speaker 4: that he's just been given bail with hardly any conditions.
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  Speaker 4: A lot of the time, for far less serious offending,
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  Speaker 4: alleged defenders are often given an ankle bracelet. You see
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  Speaker 4: so many children walking around the territory with ankle bracelets on.
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  Speaker 4: It's something that people are just accustomed to seeing.
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  Speaker 1: So that was December twenty twenty three when this young
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  Speaker 1: man was granted bail and it's now a long time on.
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  Speaker 1: Do we know anything about what was going on in
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  Speaker 1: his life between then and now?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, So he was essentially ordered to remain at a
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  Speaker 4: very small community in the territory, and he was prohibited
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  Speaker 4: to enter Darwin unless he had to attend to urgent
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  Speaker 4: medical dental treatment. Who was prohibited from approaching or communicating
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  Speaker 4: either directly or indirectly with the alleged victim. And he
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  Speaker 4: was also banned from drinking alcohol and taking drugs.
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  Speaker 1: Linford Fik is the seventy one year old man who's died.
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  Speaker 1: What do we know about him?
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  Speaker 4: He was born in Canada. He purchased this small little
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  Speaker 4: grocery store that by all accounts as a very successful
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  Speaker 4: and family run business that he operated with his wife Margaret.
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  Speaker 4: He's an Australian citizen and very loved in this very
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  Speaker 4: tight knit community. But this is the thing. I was
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  Speaker 4: talking to his son Ben, who also works at the store.
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  Speaker 4: You know, they had seen this increase in concerning behavior
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  Speaker 4: where they almost were of the understanding that something like
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  Speaker 4: this was bound to happen.
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  Speaker 1: In the territory. There's no bigger political issue than crime,
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  Speaker 1: and Liam has spent much of the past few years
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  Speaker 1: covering shocking, violent offending on the streets of communities like
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 4: I think this has really pushed the territory into a
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  Speaker 4: level where they've quite possibly never been before. There is
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  Speaker 4: a lot of anger there is, to be completely honest,
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  Speaker 4: a lot of anger which is racially motivated. Some people
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  Speaker 4: don't want to talk about it, but that is the
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  Speaker 4: truth of what's happening on the ground there. As sad
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  Speaker 4: as it is, it was only earlier this month he
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  Speaker 4: saw another elderly man who was essentially hacked in his
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  Speaker 4: own home by two young boys thirteen and fourteen years
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  Speaker 4: old who broke into this Also a seventy one year
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  Speaker 4: old man's home who was left in intensive care under
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  Speaker 4: heavy sedation after the attack, and he essentially had cuts
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  Speaker 4: to his bone from a machete. On my last trip
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  Speaker 4: to Alice Springs earlier this month, I met a gentleman
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  Speaker 4: named bart and he was a lovely local who lived
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  Speaker 4: near the hospital in Alice Springs, and there was this
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  Speaker 4: little riot that had occurred on his streets one evening.
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  Speaker 4: I arrived just about two to three minutes after police
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  Speaker 4: had arrived, but was standing out on the street armed
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  Speaker 4: with a fire poker and a large can of wasp spray.
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  Speaker 4: And he looks at me and just says, this is
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  Speaker 4: how we have to live. People are arming themselves because
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  Speaker 4: they're so fearful that people are going to either attack
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  Speaker 4: them or come into their own homes and attack them,
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  Speaker 4: or steal their cars. This is the reality of many
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  Speaker 4: people who are living in the territory.
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  Speaker 1: Sky News as Matt Cunningham spoke to the owner of
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  Speaker 1: the local barbershop, Cathie Zaviro after mister Fike's death. I'm
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  Speaker 1: just in shock.
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  Speaker 3: I'm such a shock for the family, family run business.
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  Speaker 1: I just don't know how they're going to move forward.
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  Speaker 3: Eleven million dollars to have someone murdered right in front
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  Speaker 3: of it.
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  Speaker 1: It's a joke that eleven million dollars she's talking about.
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  Speaker 1: Is the giant Nightcliff Police station right across the road
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  Speaker 1: from where Linfordfick died, but it's never been used as
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  Speaker 1: a working cop shop. It's the base for the territory's
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  Speaker 1: tactical cops and it closes each day at four pm.
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  Speaker 1: There are no cells or watchhouse. It's just like any
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  Speaker 1: other office. The territory's Chief Minister is the Country Liberal
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  Speaker 1: Party's Lea Finocchiaro, who was elected in twenty twenty four
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  Speaker 1: after a tough on crime campaign. She sheded blame for
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  Speaker 1: the situation home to the Labor government, which had governed
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  Speaker 1: the territory for eight years. One of the crimes that
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  Speaker 1: got Finocchio elected was a shocking twenty twenty three murder
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  Speaker 1: a young man named Declan Lavity, who was working in
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  Speaker 1: a bottle shop in the suburb of Jingly, just six
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  Speaker 1: minutes drive from Nightcliff.
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  Speaker 5: Keith Keranua was found guilty of fatally stubbing mister Lavity
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  Speaker 5: during a brief but deadly knife fight inside the Airport
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  Speaker 5: Tavern BWS on March nineteen, twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 2: There were some quite dramatic scenes here. After the verdict
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  Speaker 2: ash in factor, the court was locked down for about
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  Speaker 2: five minutes. There were angry scenes as those supporters yelled
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  Speaker 2: out their anger and displeasure at the verdict.
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  Speaker 1: Declan was twenty, his killer was just eighteen. Keith Kernawia's
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  Speaker 1: family and friends said he was acting in self defense
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  Speaker 1: when he plunged a knife five times into Declan Lavity,
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  Speaker 1: but the court heard he had a history of violence,
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  Speaker 1: including punching a thirteen year old boy just hours before
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  Speaker 1: he killed Declan. In June twenty twenty four, the judge
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  Speaker 1: gave Kerinawia the mandatory sentence life in prison with a
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  Speaker 1: non parole period of twenty years.
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  Speaker 5: During sentencing, the judge described mister Laberty's murder as a
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  Speaker 5: violent and unprovoked attack on an innocent member of the public.
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  Speaker 1: It gave some relief to Declan's family.
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  Speaker 5: He not only suffered, but he died in agonizing death,
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  Speaker 5: and I'm.
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  Speaker 2: So glad the jury could see that that's what happened.
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  Speaker 4: I think a lot of people saw the case of
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  Speaker 4: Declan Lavity as a sort of tipping point that was
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  Speaker 4: a moment of change, and we saw Declan z ow
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  Speaker 4: come in. Declan's mother, Samara, who I've spoken to today.
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  Speaker 4: She did a huge amount of lobbying with the government
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  Speaker 4: and has really carried on Declan's legacy to have some
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  Speaker 4: real meaningful change. But today she's in shock that this
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  Speaker 4: has happened, and she feels like after everything she's done
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  Speaker 4: to change some of these behaviors in the territory, all
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  Speaker 4: of that was for nothing, just because there's been another
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  Speaker 4: death at the hands allegedly of a young person with
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  Speaker 4: a knife.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four, one of Leah Finocchiaro's first acts
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  Speaker 1: was an attempt to reduce knife crime with an act
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  Speaker 1: called Declan's Law, legislation that tightened bail laws and introduced
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  Speaker 1: something that had been abolished, an offensive breach of bail
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  Speaker 1: for young offenders aged ten to seventeen. The idea was
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  Speaker 1: to keep more alleged defenders in custody while they were
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  Speaker 1: awaiting a court date. Critics of the bail law, just
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  Speaker 1: like critics of mandatory sentencing, have long argued title laws
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  Speaker 1: don't reduce offending. Lea Finocchiaro says she's toughening bail laws
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  Speaker 1: again and will urgently recall Parliament on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 6: What we want for the Northern Territory is to have
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  Speaker 6: the toughest bail laws in this country. This has been
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  Speaker 6: done in New South Wales and Victoria and we're confident
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  Speaker 6: it could really set a strong benchmark for community safety
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  Speaker 6: here in the Northern Territory. It means judges must consider
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  Speaker 6: the safety of the community if they're going to bow
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  Speaker 6: that person before they go on and consider all of
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  Speaker 6: those other bail factors.
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  Speaker 1: He's Corrections Minister Jared Mayley.
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  Speaker 6: We know this is going to be difficult and pressure
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  Speaker 6: on our prections offices, and we intend to make sure
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  Speaker 6: that if you commit a crime in the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 6: there'll be a bit for you in our correction system.
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  Speaker 1: Lindford Fick's wife, Margaret, said they'd been married for fifty
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  Speaker 1: one years and had seven grandchildren. She described Lindford as
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful man, a true gentleman and my soulmate gone forever.
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  Speaker 1: God bless him. Rip my darling man. Coming up. Will
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  Speaker 1: this effect the federal election? Federal politicians like to say,
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  Speaker 1: of course they do, that crime is an issue for
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  Speaker 1: state and territory governments. That's true to an extent. The
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  Speaker 1: states and territories handle policing injustice, but in the Territory,
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  Speaker 1: at this federal there'll be no getting away from crime.
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  Speaker 1: The territory has the safe Labor seat of Solomon, which
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  Speaker 1: covers Darwin and surrounds and is held by Labours Luke
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  Speaker 1: Gosling and Lingiari, which covers the rest of the territory
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  Speaker 1: and the adjacent islands. It's held by Labour's Marion Scriminger
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  Speaker 1: on a margin of just one point seven percent. Peter
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  Speaker 1: Dutton is trying hard to make crime a national issue.
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  Speaker 3: We will work day and night to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: your local community, your local suburb is safer. I've always
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  Speaker 3: been serious in my public life as a police officer
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  Speaker 3: and since i've been in Parliament in protecting people, and
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  Speaker 3: I'm very genuine about that.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps the territory's most famous politician on the national stage
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  Speaker 1: is the CLP's Justiner NumPy in for Price, who's a senator.
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  Speaker 1: She's not up for reelection this year, but she chimed
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  Speaker 1: in on social media after this week's stabbing, saying we
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  Speaker 1: must do everything we can to stamp out this abhorrent behavior.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of the crime that you've covered in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern territory has been late night street violence in places
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  Speaker 1: like Alice Springs, gangs of kids who are not in
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  Speaker 1: their homes for a lot of complex reasons. There's family dysfunction,
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  Speaker 1: there's our cohol and drug abuse going on in those homes,
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  Speaker 1: and they don't feel that it's safe to go there.
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  Speaker 1: Every so often a federal politician flies in to look
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  Speaker 1: at the situation and sound concerned. How do you think
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  Speaker 1: territorians regard the causes of this crime? You spoke a
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  Speaker 1: little earlier about vigilante violence. What a territorian say to
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  Speaker 1: you about what's actually going wrong.
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  Speaker 4: We're talking about incredibly complex issues here. Until you've been
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  Speaker 4: to some of these remote communities, you're never going to
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  Speaker 4: get a true understanding of what is happening on the
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  Speaker 4: ground there. There's a lot of people that are living
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  Speaker 4: in what could be described as third world conditions. There's
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  Speaker 4: a level of disadvantage here where children are just not
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  Speaker 4: going to school. You know the amount of times where
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: I've been at a town camp and in a school
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  Speaker 4: bus coming through and there's zero children on that bus.
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  Speaker 4: And when children are staying up until daybreak, you can
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  Speaker 4: understand why it's impossible to get them into school.
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  Speaker 1: They throughout a labor territory government. Both the Northern territories
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  Speaker 1: federal electorates are held by labor. Do you think this
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  Speaker 1: will have an impact on the federal election.
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  Speaker 4: I do, And quite interestingly, the two country Liberal Party
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  Speaker 4: candidates that I've spoken to wipe their hands clean of
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  Speaker 4: crime issues. They're saying that is more of a territory
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  Speaker 4: government issue. When people are being killed either at their
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  Speaker 4: own workplace or there's home invasions happening constantly, I think
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  Speaker 4: there comes a point where when is this going to
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  Speaker 4: really become a massive federal issue. I mean, there are
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  Speaker 4: some people that are genuinely worried that people aren't actually
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  Speaker 4: going to want to live there anymore. For the you
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: know what they love. It's the camping, it's the outdoors,
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: It's the beautiful bushwalks and waterfalls that you can experience.
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  Speaker 4: It's that life lifestyle. There is a territory lifestyle that
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  Speaker 4: you can't experience anywhere else in this country, and that
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  Speaker 4: is why people live there. And there is a real
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  Speaker 4: fear within the community. I know many people that are planning,
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  Speaker 4: genuinely planning on packing up their lives and moving somewhere
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  Speaker 4: else because it's just gotten to the point where they
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  Speaker 4: do not want to be living here anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Liam Mendez is a journalist with The Australian. You can
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  Speaker 1: read this story as well as all the nation's best news, sport,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: politics and business, plus of course, all our coverage of
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: ANZAC Day at The Australian dot com dot au