MELBOURNE: A woman appeared in an Australian court on Monday accused of assaulting an Indigenous senator in May who shouted at King Charles III during a royal reception last week.
The assault allegedly occurred on May 25, when independent senator Lidia Thorpe attended an Australian rules football match in her hometown of Melbourne.
Ebony Bell, 28, appeared via video link in the Melbourne Magistrates Court. She has been charged with two counts of recklessly causing injury and three counts of unlawful assault in a stadium.
A police statement described the 51-year-old senator’s injuries from the alleged assault as “minor.”
But he said in a statement to the AP on Monday that he had “sustained serious injuries to the nerves and spine in his neck, requiring spinal surgery and the insertion of a plate.”
The assault was reported to police the next day and Bell was arrested on July 25. The women knew each other, but the reason for the alleged attack was not explained in court.
Bell’s lawyer, Manny Nicolosi, told Magistrate Belinda Franjic that the prosecution’s case had “real deficiencies.” He said prosecutors had made an “offer” on Friday, in apparent reference to a plea deal.
“I haven’t had enough time to really consider it,” Nicolosi told the court.
Nicolosi explained that his indigenous client had not appeared in person in court due to “recent threats.” The lawyer did not provide further details about those threats.
Bell remains free on bail until he appears in court on November 22. The magistrate agreed to allow him to appear again by video.
Thorpe made his first public statement about the alleged assault after launching an expletive-laden tirade against Charles during a reception at the Australian Parliament in Canberra last week.
“You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” Thorpe shouted at Charles as security guards led her from the reception.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us back our land. Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” he added.
The main opposition party has called on Thorpe to resign from the Senate over his attitude towards Charles, who is Australia’s head of state, and has sought legal advice.
Thorpe is known for his high-profile protest actions. When she was confirmed as a senator in 2022, she was not allowed to describe the then-monarch as “the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” Last year he briefly blocked a police float at Sydney’s gay and lesbian Madri Gras, lying on the street in front of it. Last year, she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after a video emerged of her shouting abuse at male patrons.
She revealed her injuries after The Australian newspaper reported that she had missed 16 of the Senate’s 44 sitting days this year.
“The doctor ordered me not to travel and I was unable to attend parliament after suffering the injury and during recovery from surgery. “My doctor told me to take time off work,” his statement read.
“I would have preferred to keep this matter private and will not be commenting further at this time,” he added.
Thorpe was widely criticized for being disrespectful to the monarch during her outburst last week.
He faces fresh backlash next week when senators meet for the first time since the royal visit.
His office said Monday that he has not decided whether he plans to attend Senate committee meetings in person or remotely.
He also raised questions about the validity of his appointment to the Senate when he recently said he had deliberately affirmed his loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II and her “hairs”, rather than “heirs”, during his affirmation ceremony in 2022 to exclude Charles . Thorpe later retracted that claim, saying the mispronunciation was accidental.
Lawyers agree that a mispronunciation does not invalidate an affirmation and that Thorpe also signed a written version of the loyalty affirmation with the correct wording.
Sydney University constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said the Senate’s ability to discipline Thorpe was limited because his outburst occurred outside the chamber in the Great Hall of Parliament.
(This story is not edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed)
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