Horrific security footage has captured the moment an Alice Springs resident was brutally bashed with a tyre iron and repeatedly kicked in the head, leaving him with serious injuries.
News.com.au has obtained video of the assault, which occurred in 2021 in the carpark of the Alice 24 Hour Mini Mart on Todd Street.
The disturbing footage shows a man, accompanied by a woman, attacking another man in a white shirt who gets up from the ground and runs back to his ute.
The attacker, holding the metal tyre iron, then turns his attention to a second man wearing a purple shirt and white cap on the other side of the vehicle.
He runs around the car and brandishes the weapon at the man, who holds his hands up and attempts to run away.
As the man in the purple shirt has his back turned, the offender viciously strikes him in the head with the heavy metal implement, causing him to fall face-first to the concrete.
The attacker then strikes him again with the tire iron before delivering three savage kicks to his face, rendering the victim unconscious.
NT Police has been contacted for comment on the incident.
It comes after fresh statistics revealed the scale of the outback town’s shocking crime wave.
Assaults and property offences skyrocketed in the 12 months to December 2022, according to NT Police.
From December 1, 2021 to November 30 last year, assaults in the town increased by 43 per cent.
Domestic violence-related assaults increased by 53 per cent while alcohol-related assaults were up by 54 per cent.
The staggering rise in crime has made international headlines as local residents and businesses flee the violence.
“We’re seeing an exodus of people out of Alice Springs,” Toni Rowan from Alice Springs Realty previously told news.com.au.
Ms Rowan, who has lived in the town on-and-off since the ‘90s, said the crime was the worst it had ever been and “almost everyone in Alice” was under “very high emotional stress”.
“The children are running amok, breaking into people’s houses, stirring things up, smashing windows,” she said.
“I live in fear. People … have threatened to burn my house down, kill my dogs, to rape me. They’re out of control. People are closing down businesses and leaving.”
Late last month, Alice Springs youth were filmed hurling abuse and brawling with pub patrons in the CBD, with police seemingly powerless to intervene.
Last Monday evening, more than 3000 locals attended a “Save Alice Springs” community meeting to discuss the spiralling violence.
Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson said he was seeing “more people leave” and “I can’t blame them”.
“Lots of people are just saying that the perception of fear is the reason they’re going — they’re sick of being broken into, can’t afford to continue replacing windows, can’t continue to have their businesses broken into,” he previously told news.com.au.
“They’re packing up and going. It’s sad because they’re long-term residents, people who have given so much to Alice Springs. But how can I convince someone to stay when they’re scared to go to sleep at night because they’ve woken up with intruders in their home?”
Meanwhile, a report commissioned by the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments has recommended the reintroduction of indefinite grog bans across Central Australia to address the rise in alcohol-fuelled violence and social disruption since the lapsing of the Stronger Futures legislation last year.
Central Australian Regional Controller Dorelle Anderson’s report will be considered by the federal and NT governments at their respective cabinet meetings this week.
“The report will be released by the NT government after cabinet consideration, confirming next steps,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Twitter.
frank.chung@news.com.au