The Centralian Advocate Tue 29 Mar 2022
Centralian Advocate; NewspaperNT
2022-03-29
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Alice Springs; Tennant Creek (N.T.) -- Newspapers; Alice Springs (N.T.) -- Newspapers; Australia, Central -- Newspapers
News Corp Australia
Darwin
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
News Corp Australia
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/866739
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/866741
11 V1 - NTNE01Z01MA Cheers to training in wine HOSPITALITY workers in Central Australia have highlighted their thirst for knowledge after undertaking an internationally-recognised accreditation in wine. The Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 1 Award Global Accreditation in Wines was taken by 32 Central Australian hospitality workers who levelled up in their expertise. The positive reception has made Hospitality NTs policy, strategy and stakeholder relations director Sarah Andrews hopeful about future training in the area. The feedback from both the trainers and students was that they were really engaged and starved for this sort of training, she said. The demand is definitely there for more training to take place. There already was a waitlist for this set of staff, there will be more interested in the future. Hopefully there will be more opportunities, the demand is definitely there. Exam results will take one month to come through. DANIEL SUMPTON Another child sex pest fooled AN Alice Springs man who procured sexually explicit material from who he thought was a 12-year-old girl has become the second person to be sentenced after being fooled by a fake Facebook account. Unbeknown to then 29year-old Luke Curtis, the young girl he started sexting over Facebook, known to him as Kelz, was in fact a grown man. When NT Police executed a search warrant in December 2020 on the impostors house and discovered communications between Curtis and Kelz, the 29-year-olds world came crashing down. Curtis, now 30, appeared at the NT Supreme Court earlier this month for sentencing after pleading guilty to three child sexual offences, including trying to arrange to meet up for sex with a child under 16. At the hearing, Justice Judith Kelly made a recognisance release order, effectively waiving any further jail time for Curtis, who had spent the past 13 months on remand. Curtis was required to pay a $500 good behaviour bond, which will be in effect for the next two years. Justice Kelly added she would have considered ordering that Curtis spend even less time behind bars had she sentenced him sooner. The court heard Curtis father, a former veteran NT Police officer, had been left greatly disappointed but remained supportive of the 30year-old. In sentencing, Justice Kelly reminded Curtis of the devastating impact of his offending. Those images you received involved the abuse of a real child, she said. A real child was hurt in the making of those videos. So real children are not just traumatised by the making of those videos, the initial abuse, but they are re-traumatised over the years, knowing that images of their abuse are out there and being seen by adult men like you. Days before Curtis faced the courts, Justice Kelly was handing down a heftier sentence to a 28-year-old man named Roderick Mentha, who had arranged to meet up for sex with Kelz at Anzac Oval last February. But by this time, the impostor had been charged and the account placed in the hands of covert Australian Federal Police officers. The covert officers had continued speaking to Mentha, and when the 28-year-old offered to pay the supposed child for sex, the AFP hatched an elaborate sting operation to bring down the child sexual offender. Around 4pm on Friday, February 5, Mentha drove his blue Holden Commodore into the ovals parking lot, where the person he believed to be Kelz was waiting for him. In reality, it was an undercover female police officer. As Mentha began walking from his car, undercover officers pounced, arresting the 28-year-old. lee robinson Luke Curtis was sentenced for child sexual offences in Alice Springs. Picture: Facebook Alice Springs Australias Inland Capital revitalisingalice.nt.gov.au The Northern Territory Government is transforming Alice Springs into Australias Inland Capital. The precinct will become home to the historic National Aboriginal Art Gallery and other exciting projects and developments. The precinct will draw tourists to Alice Springs, create jobs and will feature: A $150 million National Aboriginal Art Gallery Water Play area and CBD revitalisation Beautiful parks and open spaces Vibrant retail outlets, cafes and restaurants