Three NT child protection workers stood down amid investigation into handling of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s case

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story contains the image of a deceased person.

Three Northern Territory child protection workers have stood down as the government investigates the circumstances leading up to the alleged murder of Kumanjayi Little Baby.

NT Child Protection Minister Robyn Cahill said she had asked the department for information regarding interactions with the girl’s family.

Cahill was reportedly offered a delayed briefing on Friday, where she learned the NT Child Protection Department had received six reports into Kumanjayi Little Baby’s welfare in the weeks before she went missing.

“They have been sidelined while an investigation is ongoing into actions taken or not taken in connection with this matter,” Cahill told the Australian Associated Press.

“I am calling for an independent investigation from someone outside the existing situation so that we can have complete accuracy and be sure we get the information we need to understand how this failure happened,” she previously told Sky News.

There will be a full investigation into the department’s handling of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s case and the NT Children’s Commissioner has been asked to conduct an independent inquiry.

Nine.com.au is not suggesting any wrongdoing by child protection workers, only that they have been withdrawn.

Kumanjayi Little Baby – the name used after her death in accordance with cultural tradition – disappeared from a house in an Alice Springs urban camp on April 25.

Her disappearance sparked a massive land and air search across central Australia until her body was found on April 30.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, is accused of murdering the five-year-old girl near Alice Springs.

He was expected to appear at Alice Springs Local Court yesterday via video link from custody in Darwin, but his appearance was excused.

No bail was applied for and the case was adjourned to July 30.

The alleged murder horrified the close-knit community, many of whom spent anxious days searching riverbeds and scrubbing for the missing girl before her body was found in bushland outside the town five days after she disappeared.

Lewis was arrested at another town camp in Alice Springs after being beaten unconscious by locals.

Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy told ABC’s 7:30 am It was important to remember that Kumanjayi was deeply loved by her family, who were in deep mourning and did not want her death to turn into a political battle.

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