![\"Doctor's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fd230045a8a0f3615fe9e96368c91200.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA former high-profile Northern Territory doctor charged with multiple sexual offences, including rape, has been committed to stand trial later this year.<\/p>\n
The man has been charged with sexual intercourse without consent and acts of gross indecency against two women known to him, in relation to separate incidents in 2021 and 2024.<\/p>\n
In an appearance in court on Friday, the man’s defence lawyer successfully sought to prevent his name from being published by the media, citing mental health concerns and the risk of jeopardising a fair trial due to the size and nature of the location he was in, as well as previous media reporting by other outlets which the lawyer said might unfairly prejudice jurors.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The defence lawyer argued in favour of keeping the former doctor’s name suppressed. (ABC News: Floss Adams)<\/p>\n
The prosecution, as well as the ABC and NT News, made submissions against the suppression order.<\/p>\n
The man’s lawyer referred to past legal cases to substantiate her argument for the man’s name to be suppressed, including one case in which the defendant was a “long term Territorian, he was relatively well-known”.<\/p>\n
“I understand from a colleague, as well as a brief internet search, that the defendant in that matter was a police officer, and I would submit that there are similarities in terms of a public-facing career as a doctor or someone working in the medical sector,” she said.<\/p>\n
“This is a matter really where preservation of the reputation of both parties is critical.<\/p>\n
“It’s an oath-on-oath matter that will largely turn on credit, and to be maligned prior to the trial in an extremely small jurisdiction would really cast, in my submission, significant doubt.”<\/p>\n
The Crown prosecutor said the defence’s submissions to the court did not provide enough elaboration on the man’s psychological welfare to justify a suppression order being made.<\/p>\n
She argued that publishing the man’s name would not impact the fairness of his upcoming trial.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/efaa3d34ad1c74042d59740b6770afbc.jpeg\")
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The matter is currently before an NT court. (Unsplash: Wesley Tingey)<\/p>\n
“Anyone who is committed for trial, who [is] innocent until proven guilty, [has] distress and trauma that naturally goes with that, and not all of those people are entitled to their names being suppressed,” she said.<\/p>\n
“My friend submits \u2026 the jury pool [in the man’s location] is small, and there’s a meaningful likelihood that the publication of his name would also identify the complainants \u2014 again, Your Honour, I respectfully disagree.”<\/p>\n
The judge said whether to place the suppression order on the man’s name was a “weighing exercise”.<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know needs help:1800 Respect national helpline<\/a>: 1800 737 732Lifeline<\/a> (24-hour crisis line): 131 114Full Stop Australia<\/a>: 1800 385 578Beyond Blue<\/a>: 1300 224 636Ruby Gaea (NT)<\/a>: 08 8945 0155″I do agree that there is a risk that if the defendant is named and linked to that prior reporting, that he would not receive a fair trial,” he said.<\/p>\n “Noting, of course, the jury court [in the man’s location] is small, and noting that he was a doctor [there]\u2026 and is very well-known to people in the community.”<\/p>\n The judge said the suppression of the man’s name would continue until a further order was made, but noted it “will still allow \u2026 the media to report on the details of the case, other than the naming of the defendant as is appropriate”.<\/p>\n The matter is expected to return to court on June 6, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former high-profile Northern Territory doctor charged with multiple sexual offences, including rape, has been committed to stand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,40800,134,304393,304389,304395,1098,304388,304396,13396,304390,304392,6671,304391,194365,304394],"class_list":{"0":"post-627909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-court-order","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fair-court-trial","13":"tag-former-doctor","14":"tag-local-doctor","15":"tag-nt","16":"tag-nt-doctor","17":"tag-prejudice","18":"tag-rape","19":"tag-rape-accused","20":"tag-rape-trial","21":"tag-sexual-assault","22":"tag-sexual-assault-doctor","23":"tag-suppression-order","24":"tag-well-known-doctor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}