Indigenous youth stabs bottleshop worker to death

As reported in the Australian, youth stabbed to death by aboriginal youth who was on bail. Why he was out on bail is anyone's guess, but needless to say, the young man would still be alive if the aboriginal was in jail where he belonged.

Am sure that the ABC is all over this story, especially given the territory and federal governments failure to render assistance as requested.

Just hope that he wasn't let out on bail because of death in custody fears.



https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/alleged-nt-youth-stabber-recently-released-on-bail-banned-from-darwin-cbd/news-story/e2b81fbe30ff0ed132bcb7021789d1ad

The teenager who allegedly stabbed a bottle shop worker in Darwin on Sunday night after being refused service of alcohol had been released on bail for aggravated robbery and aggravated assault just over a month ago.

Keith Kerinauia, 19, was arrested on Monday morning after bottle shop worker Declan Laverty, 20, died after being “assaulted with a knife”.

He has also been charged with aggravated robbery and faced Darwin Local Court on Tuesday. Mr Laverty was declared dead upon arrival after emergency services were called about 9pm to a bottle shop in the northern suburb of Jingili.

The court heard Mr Kerinauia’s previous charges, for which he was arrested in May 2022, allegedly involved a “bladed weapon”.

Sources told The Australian it is alleged he stole a bag, watch and hat and assaulted an individual walking down a street last year. He was granted bail on February 13 this year on strict con­ditions, including that he report to police daily, and lived at an ­Indigenous housing facility.

His bail conditions stipulated he be at the address between 9pm and 7am; he was also banned from the Darwin CBD.

On Tuesday, magistrate Tanya Fong Lim, who granted Mr Kerinauia bail in February, remanded him in custody.

Darwin lord mayor Kon Vatskalis said Mr Laverty’s death “should have never happened”.

“We’ve got a situation in Darwin where it seems ... alcohol has created a very, very sad situation,” he said.

In the past few months, Mr Vatskalis, who was a Labor member of the NT legislative assembly 2001-2014, says he’s noticed a “different level” of aggression occurring not just in Darwin, but in communities all across remote NT stemming from “drugs, alcohol, housing issues and jobs”.

“We’ve been asking (for) help from the federal government, we’ve been asking for help from the state government,” he said.

But he says calls for changes, including for a reduction in alcohol trading hours and licences, and reforms to the banned alcohol registry, have fallen on deaf ears.

He said he believes residents from towns such as Yuendumu, who would previously travel to Alice Springs prior to alcohol restrictions, were now travelling to Darwin. “We’ve got people that come from communities that have got licensed premises, but they sell only low-strength beer, they come here for the party time because they can buy anything they like, as much as they like,” he said.

“They come here and there are a lot of people that provide them with alcohol and they pay $100 a bottle, they can pay more than that sometimes, so some people exploit it, and they’re making money and the community pays for it.”

Despite this, NT chief minister Natasha Fyles told ABC Radio Darwin on Tuesday that it was not “necessary at this point” to bring similar alcohol restrictions to Darwin, such as restricted trading hours, that were introduced to Alice Springs earlier this month.

“We know grog is a large part of that unfortunately, but it is a legal product, but we have strengthened the legislation (and) the policies around that,” she said.

“We’ve been really focused on stopping the violence through the Social Order Response teams and those programs that we’ve been putting in place. We have invested in police resources … an over 30 per cent increase to their budget that translates to over $130m to police operationally to boost police numbers and boost police resources across the Northern Territory,” Ms Fyles said.

Mr Vatskalis says he’s noticed a “significant increase in violence and lack of police in the streets”.

“The police allege they don’t have the resources, we’ve got 1600 police (in the NT), I don’t know where they put them.

He also called for tougher bail laws, said he wasn’t surprised” that the alleged stabber was on bail, and that the government must make changes as a “matter of urgency