Details of MCG assault against Lidia Thorpe revealed after court lifts suppression order

Ebony Bell has been handed a $300 fine and a 12-month community corrections order after assaulting Lidia Thorpe in 2024. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP View image in fullscreen Ebony Bell has been handed a $300 fine and a 12-month community corrections order after assaulting Lidia Thorpe in 2024. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP Details of MCG assault against Lidia Thorpe revealed after court lifts suppression order Ebony Bell convicted and handed community work order following assault on senator and second ‘gratuitous act of violence’ while on bail Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A woman has been handed a community work order for punching Lidia Thorpe outside the MCG over claims the independent senator disrespected her mother. Ebony Bell was initially told to undertake an anger management course after her 2024 attack on Thorpe, but committed a second “gratuitous act of violence” while on bail, the Melbourne magistrates court was told in June. The 29-year-old admitted she assaulted a security guard at a regional pub in August 2015, six days after facing court over her attack on the Victorian senator and weeks before pleading guilty. Bell was on Friday handed a $300 fine and 12-month community corrections order with conviction for the two bouts of offending. NSW records first suspected case of deadly H5 bird flu as virus reaches Australia’s east coast Read more Details of her assault on Thorpe can now be revealed, after a suppression order was lifted. In September 2025, Bell pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury to Thorpe and the unlawful assault of two others, after the annual Dreamtime at the ‘G match in May 2024. Bell and the senator had a verbal altercation outside the MCG’s gate 1 at about 10pm, the court was told. Thorpe and her friends walked away but Bell pursued the group, with CCTV capturing the moment the 29-year-old assaulted the senator. Bell punched her twice to the head and then the jaw. She also punched the senator’s male friend in the face and pulled a woman’s hair as she tried to restrain the accused on the ground. View image in fullscreen CCTV footage from the day Ebony Bell attacked Lidia Thorpe outside the MCG in May 2024. Photograph: Supplied by Melbourne magistrates court Photos of Thorpe’s injuries, including a bruised lip and neck, were handed to the court, as were victim impact statements. Thorpe said the assault left her suffering deep and “long-lasting” impacts, and her trauma had been frustrated and compounded by a lack of understanding as to why it occurred. The magistrate Jillian Prior said Thorpe’s statement described “the layering of this trauma upon her own experiences of harm, in what she describes in her role as a First Nations woman in the Senate”. The prosecutor Bianca Moleta described the attack as terrifying and asked for Bell to be given a community work order with conviction, arguing she was the aggressor and continued to pur