Woman charged after Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles allegedly thumbed her nose at her
- NT leader hit by cream pancake
- Woman accused of assault
- READ MORE: Night of Terror in NT
A woman has been charged after Chief Minister Natasha Fyles was allegedly kicked in the face with a crepe covered in cream.
The Northern Territory leader, 45, was punched in the face while at Nightcliff Markets, northwest of Darwin, about 11.40am on Sunday.
Police confirmed Monday that a 56-year-old woman has been charged with aggravated assault following the incident.
The woman has been released on bail and is due to appear in a Darwin Local Court on October 10.
The footage showed a woman rushing towards an unsuspecting Ms Fyles as she left a bank and allegedly pushed the cream-covered pancake in her face.
The accused woman allegedly “threw a crepe with cream” in the face of the Chief Minister.
A nearby resident said NT News Ms Fyles “was very shocked and quite disconcerted”.
“The woman moved away from Natasha as she wiped the cream off her face,” they said.
“(The Chief Minister) took out her phone and was trying to film and photograph the incident. There were a few people around her supporting her, but she didn’t seem to be in any danger.
According to them, the alleged attacker indicated that the incident was related to a health problem.
“She was standing there with another woman and when people said she shouldn’t have done it, she said Natasha had stopped her husband from having heart surgery,” they said.
Ms Fyles is also the territory’s health minister and was attending a 15th anniversary celebration of the Bendigo Bank branch in Nightcliff, which is in her electorate.
Nightcliff market manager Ross Dudgeon condemned the alleged attack.
“The Chief Minister is quite upset,” he said.
“It’s always been a relaxed community market. There is a difference between protesting peacefully and being hateful and violent. This is simply not the case.
“Natasha is still here every Sunday, having a smoothie and she should never be exposed to this kind of aggression and violence.”
NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles was reportedly “quite upset” by the alleged attack on her electorate’s markets.
NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said NT Police were considering whether security needed to be increased for the territory’s chief.
“It’s about appreciating the threat and the risk assessment, how it presents itself and the type of policing activities we put in place around people and making sure they’re safe.” , he told The Australian.
A spokeswoman for Ms Fyles said the chief minister would not immediately comment.
