Woman charged with assault of Indigenous senator who shouted at King Charles

Lidia Thorpe says she sustained ‘serious nerve and spinal injuries’ in her neck

A woman faced court over the alleged assault of Indigenous Australian senator Lidia Thorpe who heckled King Charles during a royal reception last week.

Ms Thorpe was allegedly assaulted on 25 May when she attended an Australian Rules football match in her hometown of Melbourne.

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

A police statement described the 51-year-old senator's injuries from the alleged assault as "minor". But Ms Thorpe said she had "sustained serious nerve and spinal injuries in my neck, which required spinal surgery and a plate to be inserted".

The police said a woman was assaulted outside the cricket ground after the Australian Football League's annual Dreamtime at the match between Essendon and Richmond. The alleged assault was reported the next day and Ms Bell was arrested two months later on 25 July.

The women knew each other, but the motive for the alleged attack was not explained in court.

Ms Bell's lawyer Manny Nicolosi told magistrate Belinda Franjic the prosecution case had "real deficiencies".

He said the prosecution had made an "offer" on Friday, an apparent reference to a plea deal, but Mr Nicolosi added he hadn't had the time to "really consider it".

Mr Nicolosi explained that his Indigenous client, a Koori woman, had not appeared in court in person because of "recent threats", without revealing further about the threats. He argued against Ms Thorpe's name being released as one of the complainants.

Ms Bell remains free on bail until she appears in court next on 22 November, when she will again appear by video.

Ms 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," Ms 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 Ms Thorpe to resign from the senate due to her attitude towards Charles, who is Australia's head of state and has requested legal advice.

She defended her outrage, saying: "For those that don’t agree with what I have said and what I have done, I can tell you now there are elders, there are grassroots Aboriginal people across this country and Torres Strait Islander people who are just so proud.”

“I have decided to be a Black sovereign woman and continue our fight against the colony and for justice for our people,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Previously in 2022 when she was affirmed as a senator, she was not allowed to describe the then-monarch as "the colonising Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II". She briefly blocked a police float in Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras last year by lying on the street in front of it.

In 2023, she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after a video emerged of her shouting abuse at male patrons.