Ebony Bell convicted and handed community work order following assault on senator and second ‘gratuitous act of violence’ while on bail
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A woman has been handed a community work order for punching Lidia Thorpe outside the MCG over claims the independent senator disrespected her mother.
Ebony Bell was initially told to undertake an anger management course after her 2024 attack on Thorpe, but committed a second “gratuitous act of violence” while on bail, the Melbourne magistrates court was told in June.
The 29-year-old admitted she assaulted a security guard at a regional pub in August 2025, six days after facing court over her attack on the Victorian senator and weeks before pleading guilty.
Bell was on Friday handed a $300 fine and 12-month community corrections order with conviction for the two bouts of offending.
Details of her assault on Thorpe can now be revealed, after a suppression order was lifted.
In September 2025, Bell pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury to Thorpe and the unlawful assault of two others, after the annual Dreamtime at the ‘G match in May 2024.
Bell and the senator had a verbal altercation outside the MCG’s gate 1 at about 10pm, the court was told.
Thorpe and her friends walked away but Bell pursued the group, with CCTV capturing the moment the 29-year-old assaulted the senator.
Bell punched her twice to the head and then the jaw. She also punched the senator’s male friend in the face and pulled a woman’s hair as she tried to restrain the accused on the ground.
Photos of Thorpe’s injuries, including a bruised lip and neck, were handed to the court, as were victim impact statements.
Thorpe said the assault left her suffering deep and “long-lasting” impacts, and her trauma had been frustrated and compounded by a lack of understanding as to why it occurred.
The magistrate, Jillian Prior, said Thorpe’s statement described “the layering of this trauma upon her own experiences of harm, in what she describes in her role as a First Nations woman in the Senate”.
The prosecutor, Bianca Moleta, described the attack as terrifying and asked for Bell to be given a community work order with conviction, arguing she was the aggressor and continued to pursue the group as they walked away.
“Each experienced acts of gratuitous violence,” she told the court during Bell’s September plea hearing.
Bell’s barrister, Carmendy Cooper, said her client accepted responsibility for the offending through her guilty plea and alleged Thorpe had made distressing comments about Bell’s mother, which upset the accused.
“It was a bad choice but she made that choice because her mother, who she adores, had been disrespected,” Cooper said.
Bell was ordered to undergo an anger management course, and handed a six-month deferred sentence on 13 October 2025.
When Bell returned to the court in June, she pleaded guilty to additional charges committed while on bail for the senator’s attack.
CCTV of the August 2025 incident at the Whalers hotel in Warrnambool, showed Bell hitting a bouncer in the head with her phone three times after she was refused entry.
She then dragged him to the ground outside and kicked him in the head as he lay on the pavement.
Moleta argued Bell should be jailed as the second incident was another “gratuitous act of violence”.
“She’s a woman on a mission, she’s got her sights set on this victim just like the other three victims,” the prosecutor told the court in June.
Cooper urged the magistrate to hand Bell a community order and not prison time, as she had good prospects for rehabilitation.
The defence barrister told the court Bell’s assault on the bouncer was a strong reaction to his refusal to allow her entry to the pub, and alleged that the refusal was “motivated by racism”.
Bell returned to court on Friday when she was handed a 12-month community corrections order and ordered to undergo treatment for alcohol addiction and anger management.
Thorpe said in a statement on Friday: “I am thankful this matter has now been finalised. This has been a difficult experience, made harder by public speculation and imputations that did not reflect the facts ultimately established by the court.”
The senator said: “throughout this process I have consistently advocated against a prison sentence for the person involved”.
“I also want to reiterate that I had never met this person before the incident. I had no idea who they were.”
