Kumanjayi Little Baby’s father Raphael Granites jailed for more than three years for domestic violence

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of her family.

The father of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby has been handed a jail sentence of more than three years for aggravated assault, for offences committed against the girl’s mother.

Appearing in the Alice Springs Local Court this afternoon dressed in a brown zip-up jacket and faded cargo pants, Raphael Granites pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault against his former partner on April 9 and April 22 this year.

The court heard the 30-year-old was taken into custody on April 23, two days before his daughter disappeared from a town camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs.

Kumanjayi Little Baby’s disappearance triggered widespread searches in the town, involving hundreds of volunteers, but her body was found in bushland five days later.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been arrested and charged with her murder.

In court today, prosecutor Gigi Dadds told the court the entirety of Raphael Granites’s offending towards the five-year-old’s mother on April 9 “happened in the presence of their two children”.

The court heard it involved him spitting on the mother, along with threats to knock her out and stomp on her head.

“The victim, as contained in the statement of facts, was so fearful that she contacted the women’s shelter by email for help,” she said.

Ms Dadds told the court the assault on April 22, which hospitalised his partner, happened when Granites was aware she did not want to continue the relationship.

“She remained on the ground in a vulnerable position. [There were] the two applications of force, which were on a vulnerable part of her body, being her face, and she sustained injuries to her lips, cheek and eye region,” Ms Dadds said.

The prosecutor also read a victim impact statement to the court.

“When Raphael punched me into my face, it was painful; my cheek was stinging and really sore. My lip was also split and I could taste blood,” the woman wrote in her statement.

“At the time of the assault, it was painful, and for about a week later it was still sore and swollen. My eye was still black when my baby girl was missing.

“I felt scared because I thought Raphael was going to hurt me more because he has hurt me lots of other times before and is always intimidating me and making me feel threatened.”

The victim also requested the court send Granites to live with family in WA after he served a court order in the Northern Territory.

“That way I know that I’m safe and I don’t need to keep looking over my shoulder everywhere I go,” she wrote.

“I think Raphael needs to stay in jail to learn a lesson and to do some sort of men’s programs so he knows that it is not okay to keep assaulting women.”

Granites’s defence lawyer Jackson Meaney asked the judge to consider that the 30-year-old had “experienced childhood exposure to domestic violence”.

“The cycle, unfortunately, has continued in Mr Granites’s case,” Mr Meaney said.

He added Granites had experienced “periods in his life where he’s very positively contributed to his community”, telling the court his client had been employed at the Yuendemu store and spent 20 months without offending before he travelled to Alice Springs.

Mr Meaney pointed to extended family and friends who were in court to support the defendant, including senior Warlpiri elder Robin Granites Japanangka, and argued any potential term of imprisonment should include time under supervision in the community.

“Following the loss of his father, Robin Granites has played a really central role as that man in his life that has cultural authority and provides guidance and support to Raphael,” Mr Meaney said.

“Mr [Robin] Granites has attended court on numerous occasions in support of Raphael, during the course of two applications for bail that were brought largely on compassionate basis for Raphael to be able to attend to his family during those tragic moments following the news of the loss of a young child and at the time that the funeral occurred.

“It has been an incredibly difficult process for my client whilst he’s been in custody, largely separated from his family and his community, going through that process of grieving the loss of a very young child in circumstances that will be difficult to understand.”

In sentencing, Judge Jonathan Bortoli said he gave weight to “the difficult conditions on remand” given “the absolutely tragic loss of your daughter”.

He also noted Granites’s guilty pleas had saved “the complainant, who is a vulnerable person herself, from having to come in court to give evidence”.

But Judge Bortoli stated “almost all of your offending essentially has been against the same victim” and that the offending “shows a concerning pattern of behaviour and attitude towards your partner and women in general”.

“Eight priors of aggravated assault, eight breaches of domestic violence orders and one threat and charge, all in relation to the same victim,” he said.

Raphael Granites was sentenced to three years and two months in prison, backdated to April 23 this year.

The judge said that term included restoring Granites’s suspended sentence for “a violent offence against the same victim”, 14 months imprisonment for the aggravated assault on April 9, and 16 months for the offence on April 22.

He will be eligible for parole in June 2028.

“In terms of the domestic violence order then, Mr Granites, I do agree a full no-contact order is appropriate,” Judge Bortoli said.

“I’m going to make that for a very lengthy period given your extensive history. There will be a 20-year full no-contact domestic violence order.

“You are not to approach, contact or remain in her company, that is directly or indirectly, so you can’t even do it through family or friends.”

Granites was ordered to communicate through legal or nominated parties to make arrangements to see his son.

“I can only express my hope that when you are released that you leave her alone and have nothing to do with her,” Judge Bortoli said.

“And if you do have another partner in the future that you have learned from this.”