ABORIGINAL culture was to blame for endemic levels of sexual violence against children in central Australia, according to a Northern Territory prosecutor who cited a case in which a four-year-old was drowned while being anally raped.
Alice Springs prosecutor Nanette Rogers said "men's business" in remote Aboriginal communities often led to males freely breaking the law and committing appalling crimes.
"Men's business is a predominant aspect of life in remote communities, and young men who are initiated are given a certain status in the community and feel they are not responsible for their actions," Ms Rogers told ABC television's Lateline last night.
"In other words, they can do whatever they like.
"Young women are not accorded the same status. Males are given a higher status."
Ms Rogers detailed a range of "dreadful" cases she had prosecuted, which included a seven-month-old baby and a two-year-old toddler being raped and a four-year-old girl being drowned while being raped.
"While she was playing in the water he pulled her under and anally penetrated her and drowned her probably simultaneously," she said.
Other children witnessed the murder. "Their evidence was that they saw him holding her in the water, they saw bubbles coming up, they tried to throw rocks at him in an effort to get him to desist and then they ran back to the community to alert the grandparents," Ms Rogers said.
"It was awful, absolutely dreadful. Cases like this are really beyond the range of normal comprehension.""In normal behaviour we expect to be say murdered or sexually assaulted or maybe stabbed but not on a constant basis not in relation to horrible offences committed on really small children."
She said Aboriginal communities were suffering from tragedy fatigue, allowing horrific crimes to appear unremarkable.
"The child grows up seeing violence all around him or her and having violence done to him or her and then becomes an adult and then they become violent themselves," she said.
When a report was made to police, it was often not followed up because of intimidation of witnesses or physical violence.
"Aboriginal society here tends to be very punitive so if a witness goes into court and tells a story, they're liable to get physically punished by the offender's family," she said. "It's a punitive culture at every turn."
She said the lack of supervision of children in remote communities by parents who were often drunk was a key problem. In several cases, she said, the offenders had simply whisked the children away.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough said the fact that only eight out of 40 indigenous communities in central Australia with populations above 2500 had a police presence was not in line with community standards.
Jane Lloyd, the manager of the domestic violence unit at the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council, said more police were needed to restore law and order in remote communities, and especially the outstations.
"There is a history and tradition of violence, especially in Western Desert cultures. It's become more extreme," Ms Lloyd said.
Australian media reports that a recently leaked Northern Territory police briefing paper exposes "shocking" cases of sexual abuse and violence against women and children in remote Australian Aboriginal communities.

Northern Territory, Australia
Central Australian Crown prosecutor, Dr Nannette Rogers, alleged a range of "dreadful" cases she has heard of. Her paper claims details of abuse (over a 15-year period), including the rape of a seven-month-old baby, and the sexual assault and drowning of a girl by an 18-year-old man. The report refers to a disturbingly abusive and secretive Indigenous male culture. She says a "web of kinship" has helped to create a "conspiracy of silence" and that Aboriginal communities were suffering from "tragedy fatigue," allowing horrific crimes to appear unremarkable. 

"It doesn't augur well for Aboriginal people to be functional human beings with the attributes of turning around and caring for children themselves," she said. "The child grows up seeing violence done to him or her and having violence done to him or her." 

 Tangentyere Council chief executive William Tilmouth says it is appalling behaviour. "It's a behaviour that's got to stop, it's behaviour that denigrates the family, as well as the women," he said.