{"id":788814,"date":"2026-07-09T08:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T08:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/788814\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T08:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T08:41:13","slug":"nt-police-charge-34yo-man-with-murder-after-17yo-girl-found-dead-in-galiwinku-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/788814\/","title":{"rendered":"NT Police charge 34yo man with murder after 17yo girl found dead in Galiwin’ku home"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 34-year-old man has been charged with murder over the death of a teenage girl in the remote community Galiwin’ku, with police alleging the 17-year-old died of blunt force injuries.<\/p>\n

It comes after authorities were called to a home in the community on Elcho Island on Monday morning, where officers found the girl unconscious.<\/p>\n

“Local police, assisted by staff from the local health clinic, attended the scene, where she was declared deceased,” an NT Police Force spokesperson said in a statement released this afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Police charged the man on Thursday, a day after the autopsy was completed. (ABC News: Joseph Hathaway-Wilson)<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old man was arrested on Monday, with detectives investigating through the week until charging him with murder on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“Investigations indicate the man was in a domestic relationship with the deceased at the time of her death,” the police statement said.<\/p>\n

At a press conference this afternoon, Detective Acting Superintendent Paul Lawson was asked about the nature of the pair’s relationship.<\/p>\n

“The entire circumstances surrounding their relationship, and the goings-on prior to the incident, is going to form part of our brief to the coroner and also the criminal brief [for the prosecution],” he said.<\/p>\n

“The autopsy wasn’t conducted until yesterday, and that gave us all the information we needed.”<\/p>\n

Detective Acting Superintendent Lawson described the case as “complex” and said police investigations indicated the 17-year-old girl “has died of blunt forced injuries”.<\/p>\n

When asked if the 34-year-old man would be subject to an extended mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years for domestic violence murder, following an NT law change earlier this year<\/a>, Detective Acting Superintendent Lawson said “that will be for the courts to answer”.<\/p>\n

NT to introduce strongest penalty for DV murder in Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

Domestic violence killers in the Northern Territory are set to serve longer prison sentences without parole than others charged with murder.<\/p>\n

“A young woman has lost her life, and our thoughts are with her family and community,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our local members remain in the community and are working closely with those affected.”<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old man is expected to appear before the Darwin Local Court on Friday.<\/p>\n

Police will prepare a report on the girl’s death for the coroner.<\/p>\n

Local councillors speak out about DV<\/p>\n

Representatives from the East Arnhem Regional Council have condemned the alleged act of domestic violence, releasing a statement today about “the tragic loss of a 17-year-old Yol\u014bu girl”.<\/p>\n

“Our council representatives are strong and united in making clear this violence does not reflect traditional Yol\u014bu culture and is completely unacceptable,” they said.<\/p>\n

President Lapulung Dhamarrandji said “domestic violence is not our way”, saying “in our culture, women are sacred”.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Lapulung Dhamarrandji says the alleged domestic violence incident does not reflect Yol\u014bu values. (Supplied: East Arnhem Regional Council)<\/p>\n

“Women are the bearers of life, they need to be honoured and respected,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We value the role of the police \u2014 we support there being more police officers, based in community.”<\/p>\n

Yalu Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Anahita Tonkin and chair Jasmine Yunupingu said “fit-for-purpose community education on family violence” was made available in Yol\u014bu\u00a0language.<\/p>\n

In the statement, they said that resource could support “understanding all forms of violence, coercive control, lateral violence and sexual violence”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 34-year-old man has been charged with murder over the death of a teenage girl in the remote…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,39043,128993,120727,120726,63514,372063,72330,2968,44,1098,372062],"class_list":["post-788814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-domestic-violence","tag-dv-murder","tag-elcho-island","tag-galiwinku","tag-gendered-violence","tag-girl-killed","tag-intimate-partner-violence","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-nt","tag-teen-murdered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788814","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=788814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}