A woman has been handed a community work order for punching Lidia Thorpe outside the MCG over claims the senator disrespected her mother.
Ebony Bell was initially told to undertake an anger management course after her 2024 attack on Senator Thorpe, but committed a second "gratuitous act of violence" while on bail, Melbourne Magistrates Court was told in June.
The 29-year-old admitted she assaulted a security guard at a regional pub in August 2015, 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 Bell's assault on Senator Thorpe can finally be revealed, after a suppression order banning reporting on it was lifted.
In September 2025, Bell pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury to Senator 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 one about 10pm, the court was told.
Senator 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 Senator Thorpe's injuries, including a bruised lip and neck, were handed to the court, as were victim impact statements.
Senator 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 why it occurred.
"And 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," magistrate Jillian Prior said, about Ms Thorpe's statement.
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 had accepted responsibility for the offending through her guilty plea and alleged Senator Thorpe had made distressing comments about Bell's mother, which made her client upset.
"It was a bad choice but she made that choice because her mother, who she adores, had been disrespected," Ms Cooper said.
Bell was ordered to undergo an anger management course, and handed a six-month deferred sentence on October 13, 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.
Ms Moleta said Bell must now be handed a jail sentence in combination with a community corrections order as the incident was yet 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," she told the court in June.
But Ms Cooper urged the magistrate to hand Bell a community order and not prison time as she had good rehabilitation prospects.
She said Bell's assault on the bouncer was a strong reaction to his refusal to allow her entry to the pub and the refusal was "motivated by racism".
Bell return to court on Friday for her sentence, where she was handed a 12-month community corrections order with conditions she undergo treatment for alcohol addiction and anger management.
Australian Associated Press
