Australian police have charged a 47-year-old man with murder and two counts of sexual assault following the death of a five-year-old Indigenous girl whose body was discovered after a days-long search in the outback near Alice Springs, a town in Australia's remote Northern Territory. Jefferson Lewis was charged on Saturday and is expected to appear in Darwin's local court on Tuesday, remanded in custody. The victim is known publicly as Kumanjayi Little Baby — a name given by her family in accordance with Warlpiri cultural protocols, which hold that using the name of a deceased loved one during mourning may disturb their spirit.

The girl, a member of the Warlpiri Indigenous people, disappeared in the early hours of Sunday 25 April after her mother last saw her asleep at the Old Timers, or Ilyperenye, town camp near Alice Springs. When the mother checked on her at 1:30am, she was gone. Hundreds of volunteers joined a vast search on foot, horseback and by helicopter through dense surrounding bushland before her body was found on Thursday. Lewis, who has prior convictions for physical assault and had recently been released from prison, was found by locals and beaten unconscious before police took him into custody.

His arrest triggered violent unrest outside the Alice Springs hospital where he was being treated. A crowd of roughly 400 people clashed with police, throwing objects and setting fire to police vehicles and bins. Officers deployed tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom demanded Lewis face traditional