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Disabled Aboriginal woman to be freed

An Aboriginal woman will return to Alice Springs after being locked up for 18 months in a West Australian prison without conviction.

An Aboriginal woman born brain-damaged with foetal alcohol syndrome will soon be freed from a West Australian jail where she has been stuck in limbo for 18 months.

Roseanne Fulton, who has been in prison without conviction, will be transferred to a home in Alice Springs where she will receive 24-hour, seven-days-a-week care, her guardian Ian McKinlay said.

The Northern Territory government had promised her a place in a secure group home in Alice Springs but later reneged on the deal, saying two male clients at the facility posed a risk to her, which Mr McKinlay dismissed as "nonsense".

Mr McKinlay, a former former NT policeman, said the NT Health department had finally agreed to move her to Alice Springs in six-to-eight weeks.

"It's a great relief," he told AAP.

"She's looking forward to coming back to Alice Springs."

The WA court system declared her mentally unfit to face trial after the 24-year-old was charged with driving offences.

She was then subject to an indefinite custody order.

Mr McKinlay estimates there's 30-60 other indigenous people with disabilities locked up indefinitely under state and territory laws affecting offenders unfit to plead.

His online petition, on change.org, to have Ms Fulton freed has received 114,892 signatures.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has called for a national audit.


2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


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