Woman accused of assaulting Australian senator who shouted at the king

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A woman appeared in an Australian court Monday accused of a May attack on Indigenous senator who shouted at King Charles III during a royal reception last week.

The attack is said to have taken place on May 25, when it was independent Senator Lidia Thorpe attended an Australian Rules Football match in her hometown of Melbourne.

Ebony Bell, 28, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court via video link. 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 attack as “minor.”

But she said in a statement to the AP on Monday that she suffered “severe nerve and spinal injuries in my neck that required spinal surgery and the insertion of a plate.”

The next day a report was made to the police and Bell was arrested on July 25. The women knew each other, but the motive for the alleged attack was not explained in court.

Bell’s lawyer Manny Nicolosi told magistrate Belinda Franjic that the prosecution case had “real flaws”. He said the prosecutor had made an “offer” on Friday, an apparent reference to a settlement.

“I haven’t had enough time to really think about it,” Nicolosi told the court.

Nicolosi explained that his indigenous client had not appeared in court in person due to “recent threats.” The lawyer did not elaborate on these threats.

Bell remains free on bail until she appears in court on November 22. The magistrate agreed to her reappearance via video.

Thorpe made her first public statement about the alleged attack after launching an expletive-laden tirade against Charles at a reception at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra last week.

‘You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” Thorpe shouted at Charles as she was led from the reception by guards.

“You have committed genocide against our people. Give us our country back. Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” she added.

The main opposition party has called on Thorpe to resign from the Senate over her attitude towards Charles, Australia’s head of state, and has sought legal advice.

Thorpe is known for high-profile protests. When she was appointed senator in 2022, she was prohibited from describing the then monarch as “the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” Last year she briefly blocked a police car in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Madri Gras by lying down in the street in front of it. Last year she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after video emerged of her male customers shouting.

She revealed her injuries after the Australian newspaper reported she had missed 16 of the Senate’s 44 days this year.

“I was ordered by the doctor not to travel and could not attend Parliament after sustaining the injury and while recovering from the operation. My doctor told me to take time off work,” her statement read.

“I would have preferred to keep this matter private and I will not be commenting further on it at this stage,” she added.

Thorpe was widely criticized for being disrespectful to the monarch during her outburst last week.

She will face another backlash next week when senators meet for the first time since then the royal visit.

Her office said Monday that she has not yet decided whether she plans to attend Senate committee meetings in person or remotely.

She also raised questions about the validity of her Senate nomination, when she recently said she had deliberately declared her allegiance to it Queen Elizabeth II and her “hairs” instead of “heirs” during her 2022 confirmation ceremony to rule out Charles. Thorpe later walked back that statement, saying the mispronunciation was accidental.

Lawyers agree that a mispronunciation did not invalidate an affirmation and that Thorpe also signed a written version of the declaration of allegiance with the correct wording.

University of Sydney constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said the Senate’s ability to discipline Thorpe was limited because her outburst took place outside the chamber in the Great Hall of Parliament.