Lia Finocchiaro

Force in Play

Imposed alcohol restrictions and reinforced Alice Springs police after riots

A five-year-old Warlpiri girl who could communicate only by hand gestures disappeared from a town camp on the edge of Alice Springs late on a Saturday night. A search party of roughly 300 volunteers found her body in the bush five days later. By that evening, around 400 of her relatives and neighbours had surrounded the hospital where the suspect was being treated, demanding he be handed over for traditional payback. Police drove the crowd back with tear gas; four of the town's five ambulances were disabled before dawn.

Updated 3 hours ago