Man charged in Australia over Indigenous girl’s death

An arrest in the killing of a five-year-old Indigenous girl has intensified scrutiny in Australia’s Northern Territory, where her death set off violent unrest in an outback town just days earlier.

Northern Territory police said Jefferson Lewis, 47, had been charged with murdering Kumanjayi Little Baby, the name used for the victim in accordance with Indigenous custom. He also faces two additional charges that cannot be publicly identified for legal reasons, police said in a statement.

“This is an horrific event and an horrific set of circumstances, and our thoughts remain strongly with the family,” Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole said in televised remarks from Alice Springs.

Watch: Death of young girl is a ‘horrific event’, Australian police say

Police said Mr Lewis, who had presented himself ‌to one of the camps ⁠on the outskirts of the outback town, was charged yesterday evening and is due to appear in court in Darwin, the territory’s capital, on Tuesday.

The girl’s killing, and the later apprehension of the suspect, prompted protests involving about 400 Indigenous people near Alice Springs late on Thursday. ‌

Mr Lewis has previous convictions for physical assault and had only recently been released from prison.

During the unrest, some demonstrators hurled projectiles and set fires, injuring several ⁠police officers and medical workers and damaging police vehicles, ambulances and fire trucks.

Televised footage showed members ‌of the crowd shouting demands for payback.

Mr Lewis had recently been released from prison

Police ‌deployed tear gas to break up the protest, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, local officials and a spokesperson for the victim’s family urged calm.

Australia has for decades wrestled with how to reconcile with its Indigenous people, who have lived on ⁠the land for about 50,000 years but were pushed to the margins under British colonial rule.

Indigenous Australians make up 3.8% ⁠of the population and continue to face entrenched disadvantage, including discrimination, poor health and education outcomes, and high incarceration rates.

Thousands of people, among them the victim and her family, live in camp communities where housing and basic services are often inadequate.

One in five people in Alice Springs is Indigenous.

The victim’s body was found on Thursday by one of hundreds of people searching the thick bushland around the town.