Monday 19 July 2010

Kwementyaye Ryder : his death examined : Alice Springs under the microscope


My friend Cheryl as well as Murray and Lorraine from Whitehorse Friends for Reconciliation have all been in touch to make sure that I am watching Four Corners to-night.


Kwementyaye Ryder was killed 
by five young white men 
in Alice Springs on 25 July 2009.


To-night's report by Liz Jackson is titled A Dog Act

It was almost a year ago, just after sunrise in Alice Springs on July 25 2009, that an Aboriginal man was killed by a group of white youths travelling in a white twin cab ute. As soon as the police arrested and identified the five men, emotions were unleashed in Alice Springs and race relations came under the spotlight.

As the editor of the local newspaper told Liz Jackson: "(It was) huge, huge. I mean once the arrests were made, you got a sense that Alice Springs spoke about nothing else."*

Another local said: "The hardest thing is knowing that this could happen in this town, in this community, not only that but to find out that they were local young men was very, very distressing."

For the first time, families of the victim and the young men who are now in jail, speak to Liz Jackson as they struggle to come to terms with the devastating aftermath of a shocking killing.

Witnesses to the killing also speak for the first time, as they attempt to understand how this could have happened.

Four Corners also gains exclusive access to police records of interviews and re-enactments that document a confronting crime.




Join Liz Jackson as she investigates "A Dog Act" 
on ABC 1 at 8.35pm on Monday 19th July 
and repeated on Tuesday 20th July 2010 at 11.30pm*.
 Also on


The five men who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Kwementyaye Ryder in the Todd River last year have today been sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

Joshua Spears, Anthony Kloeden, Glen Swain, Timothy Hird and Scott Doody received sentences ranging from 12 months to six years in jail with a non-parole period of four years.

Mr Ryder died from a brain haemorrhage last year after he was assaulted by the five men.

Anthony Kloeden has also pleaded guilty to recklessly endangering the life of another man who was camped in the Todd River the same morning.

Lawyers for the five men claim the attacks were not racially motivated but a reaction to a bottle being thrown at the vehicle the men were travelling in.

Further reading and viewing:
Samson and Delilah (2009) ( Samson & Delilah ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

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