Northern Territory police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of another young child in an outback community, just weeks after the alleged rape of a two-year-old prompted emergency measures to bring alcohol-fuelled violence under control.

Officers from the child abuse taskforce are investigating the alleged incident in a Barkly region remote community, and have a youth in custody.

NT police said no one else was being sought in relation to the matter.

It is understood the child is four years old and the perpetrator is a teenager.

NT chief minister Michael Gunner said additional Territory Families staff had been deployed to the community and the incident would also be referred to the children’s commissioner.



“This is an extremely disturbing incident,” he told the ABC. “Every child, no matter where they live, deserves to be in a safe environment.”

The opposition leader, Gary Higgins, called for immediate measures to be implemented as soon as possible as well as continuing work by territory and federal governments to address Indigenous disadvantage in the NT.

“This is a complex set of problems that cannot be solved overnight, but what sort of society do we live in if we cannot commit to addressing this crisis with a sense of urgency.”



The alleged attack occurred just over a month after a 24-year-old man allegedly raped a two-year-old girl in Tennant Creek, the main town in the Barkly.



The family of the young girl accused welfare services under the NT government’s Territory Families department of ignoring their concerns about the safety of the girl.

A damning internal review of child protection services, launched in response to the incident, found multiple failings and breakdowns in the system. However it also said there was no evidence to suggest that if department staff had taken any different action in the months before the alleged assault that they would have prevented it.

There were more than 20 notifications made about the girl’s family and the house in which she lived were made to Territory Families but none prompted intervention. Territory Families staff had been working with the mother, the department said.

The review said in future the department “must ensure that assessments and interventions are not incident based and look at the needs of families as a whole.”

Among the issues identified by the review was a lack of oversight and the potential desensitisation of staff to “the constant flow of notifications of children who have suffered harm”.

“The central intake team does not have a dedicated position to assess the quality of assessment and decision-making and ensure consistency in the services delivered at the ‘front door’ of the agency,” it said.



The children’s commission is also investigating that incident.

Severe alcohol restrictions have been placed over the town of Tennant Creek in an effort to curb alcohol-related violence.

In the weeks following the incident several community leaders and residents criticised the government for ignoring their pleas for help for months before the assault.



