Three NT child protection workers stood down amid investigation into handling of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s case

Three Northern Territory child protection staff members have been stood down as the government investigates the circumstances before Kumanjayi Little Baby’s alleged murder.

The NT’s child protection minister, Robyn Cahill, said she asked the department for information relating to its interactions with the girl’s family.

Cahill was reportedly offered a delayed briefing on Friday, where she learned that the NT child protection department had received six reports about Kumanjayi Little Baby’s welfare in the weeks before she went missing.

Kumanjayi Little Baby. (Supplied)

“They’ve been stood down while an investigation is underway into actions taken, or not taken, in relation to this case,” Cahill told Australian Associated Press.

“I am calling for an independent investigation from someone who is removed from the existing situation so we can have total accuracy and be sure that we are getting the information that we need to get to understand how this failure could happen,” she earlier told Sky News.

Nine.com.au has contacted the Northern Territory’s child protection department for comment.

A full investigation into how the department handled Kumanjayi Little Baby’s case will take place and the NT children’s commissioner has been asked to run an independent investigation.

Nine.com.au does not suggest any wrongdoing by the child protection staff members, only that they have been stood down.

Kumanjayi Little Baby – the name used in line with cultural tradition after her death – vanished from a home in a town camp in Alice Springs on April 25.

Her disappearance triggered a massive land and air search across central Australia until her body was found on April 30.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been accused of murdering the five‑year‑old girl near Alice Springs.

He was expected to appear in Alice Springs Local Court yesterday via video link from custody in Darwin but his appearance was excused.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been accused of murdering the five‑year‑old girl. (NT Police)

No application for bail was made, and the case was adjourned to July 30.

The alleged murder horrified the tight‑knit community, many of whom spent anxious days scouring creek beds and scrub for the missing girl before her body was found in bushland outside the town five days after she disappeared.

Lewis was arrested at another Alice Springs town camp after being beaten unconscious by locals.

Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy told ABC’s 7.30 it was important to remember Kumanjayi was very loved by her family, who were in deep mourning and did not want her death to be turned into a political fight.