Woman charged with assaulting Australian senator who shouted at the king

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

The assault allegedly occurred on May 25, when independent Sen. Lidia Thorpe attended an Australian Rules Football match in her hometown of Melbourne.

Ebony Bell, 28, appeared by a video link in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. She has been charged with two counts of recklessly causing injury and three counts of unlawful assault at a stadium.

A police statement described the 51-year-old senator’s injuries from the alleged assault as “minor.”

But she said in a statement to the AP on Monday she had “sustained serious nerve and spinal injuries in my neck, which required spinal surgery and a plate to be inserted.”

The assault was reported to police the next day 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 the prosecution case had “real deficiencies.” He said the prosecution had on Friday made an “offer,” an apparent reference to a plea deal.

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

Nicolosi explained that his Indigenous client hadn’t appeared in court in person because of “recent threats.” The lawyer did not elaborate on those threats.

Bell remains free on bail until she appears in court next on Nov. 22. The magistrate agreed to allow her to appear again by video.

Thorpe made her first public statement about the alleged assault after she launched an expletive-laden rant at Charles during a reception in Australian Parliament House in Canberra last week.

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

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

The main opposition party has called for Thorpe to resign from the Senate due to her attitude toward Charles, who is Australia’s head of state, and have requested legal advice.

Thorpe is renowned for high-profile protest action. When she was affirmed as a senator in 2022, she wasn’t allowed to describe the then-monarch as “the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” She briefly blocked a police float in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Madri Gras last year by lying on the street in front of it. Last year, she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after video emerged of her shouting abuse at male patrons.

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

“I was ordered by the doctor not to travel and could not attend parliament after I sustained the injury and during recovery from surgery. My doctor told me to take time off work,” her statement said.

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

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

She faces a further backlash next week when senators sit for the first time since the royal visit.

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

She also raised questions about the validity of her appointment to the Senate when she recently said she had deliberately affirmed her allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II and her “hairs,” rather than “heirs,” during her affirmation ceremony in 2022 to exclude 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 affirmation of allegiance with the correct wording.

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