Details of MCG assault against Lidia Thorpe revealed after court lifts suppression order | Lidia Thorpe

A woman has been given a community work order for punching Lidia Thorpe outside the MCG after the independent senator allegedly disrespected her mother.

Ebony Bell was initially told to attend an anger management course following her attack on Thorpe in 2024, but committed a second “act of unnecessary violence” while on bail, Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told in June.

The 29-year-old admitted assaulting a security guard at a regional bar in August 2025, six days after appearing in court for his attack on a Victorian senator and weeks before he pleaded guilty.

Bell was sentenced to a $300 fine and a 12-month community corrections order on Friday after being convicted of two offences.

Details of his attack on Thorpe can now be revealed after the crackdown order was lifted.

In September 2025, Bell pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury to Thorpe and unlawful assault on two others following the annual Dreamtime in the ‘G match in May 2024.

According to the court, Bell and the senator were said to have had a verbal argument in front of Gate 1 of the MCG at around 22:00 in the evening.

Thorpe and his friends walked away but Bell followed the group and CCTV recorded the moment the 29-year-old attacked the senator.

Bell punched him twice in the head and then in the jaw. He also punched the senator’s boyfriend in the face and pulled the hair of a woman who tried to hold the defendant down.

Photographs of Thorpe’s injuries, including a bruised lip and neck, and victim impact statements were given to the court.

Thorpe said the attack had deep and “long-lasting” effects, with her trauma made worse by her frustration and lack of understanding of why it had happened.

Judge Jillian Prior said Thorpe’s testimony described “the layering of that trauma on top of her own experiences of harm, as she described it in her role as a First Nations woman in the Senate.”

Prosecutor Bianca Moleta described the attack as horrific and asked for Bell to be given a community work order with conviction, claiming he was the attacker and continued to follow the group as they walked away.

“Each of them was subjected to unprovoked acts of violence,” he told the court at Bell’s plea hearing in September.

Bell’s attorney, Carmendy Cooper, said her client admitted his guilt and accepted responsibility for the crime, and claimed Thorpe made upsetting comments about Bell’s mother that upset the defendant.

“It was a bad choice, but he made that choice because his beloved mother was disrespected,” Cooper said.

Bell was ordered to attend an anger management course and was given a six-month suspended sentence on October 13, 2025.

When Bell returned to court in June, he also pleaded guilty to additional charges committed while out on bail for the senator’s attack.

CCTV of the incident at the Whalers hotel in Warrnambool in August 2025 showed Bell hitting a bouncer three times in the head with his phone after being refused entry.

He then dragged her to the ground outside and kicked her in the head as she lay on the pavement.

Moleta argued Bell should be jailed because the second incident was another “gratuitous act of violence”.

“She is a woman on a mission, she has her sights set on this victim, just like the other three victims,” ​​the prosecutor told the court in June.

Cooper asked the magistrate to give Bell a community order rather than a prison sentence because Bell’s chances of rehabilitation were good.

Defense counsel told the court Bell’s attack on the security guard was a strong reaction to his refusal to allow him into the bar, claiming the refusal was “racially motivated”.

Bell returned to court on Friday, where he was given a 12-month community punishment order and ordered to receive treatment for alcohol addiction and anger management.

Thorpe said in a statement Friday: “I am grateful that this matter has now been concluded. This has been a difficult experience made even more difficult by public speculation and accusations that do not reflect the facts ultimately determined by the court.”

“Throughout this process, I have consistently advocated for the person involved to be sentenced to prison,” the senator said.

“I would also like to reiterate that I had never met this person before the incident. I had no idea who he was.”