Aboriginal actor Gulpilil sentenced to jail for wife assault



ACTOR David Gulpilil will spend the next five months in jail for breaking his wife’s arm in a drunken assault last year.


Appearing in a Darwin court yesterday, Australia’s most prominent indigenous actor, who played famous roles in films such as Crocodile Dundee, Rabbit Proof Fence and Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, was sentenced to 12 months in prison to be suspended after five months for fracturing wife Miriam Ashley’s arm with a broom.

Gulpilil, 58, was homeless at the time of the assault and living in greater Darwin’s “Long Grass” near One Mile Dam.

He had pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, with the court hearing he had assaulted Ms Ashley because she refused to join him while he was drinking at a Darwin home.

His lawyer, Eugene Schofield, said Gulpilil had a drinking problem and had been embarrassed by the trial’s publicity.

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Mr Schofield told The Australian yesterday that the five-month prison sentence would at least stop Gulpilil’s drinking for a period, but he needed serious help to combat his habit of drinking large amounts of alcohol every day.

“Certainly a sentence of imprisonment could be read as a form of treatment, but not the treatment he really needs, which is alcohol rehabilitation,” Mr Schofield said.

“At the moment, it is a major concern for David’s health. It’s really jeopardised his health in the last few years.”

While Ms Ashley complained to police, after the assault she reconciled with Gulpilil and “was very reluctant to have the charges proceed, and that was visible from her demeanour in court”, Mr Schofield said.

Gulpilil intends to work on two films in the next year, but it is unclear whether his imprisonment will affect his chances of completing the projects.

His relationship with Ms Ashley has brought the pair regularly to court, the actor having been issued domestic violence orders in 2007 and 2009.

He has faced court in Darwin on offences ranging from weapons charges to a series of drink-driving offences, as well as domestic violence charges.

In August 2000, after a short stint in prison on his sixth drink-driving conviction, he told of the difficulties he found in moving from life in the bush to the city.

“I don’t like grog. I like grog,” he said at the time. “I don’t like ganja. I like ganja. That’s me, but it’s no answer. To me, those things are nothing. I don’t need a beer where I live.

“I’ve got elders and land looking at me — respect. And I do respect. It just wastes my life. I ended up doing a lot of things, if you know what I mean.”

Gulpilil, who hails from Raminginging, a remote community in Arnhem Land, made his screen debut in Walkabout in 1971.

Additional reporting: Ashleigh Wilson and AAP

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