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US marine stationed in Australia is charged with rape as base is ordered into lockdown

US Marine stationed in Australia is accused of rape while the base is on lockdown

By David Southwell and Nca Newswire

Published: | Updated:

A US Marine stationed in Australia has been charged with aggravated assault and sexual intercourse without consent.

The 20-year-old marine was arrested on Monday in Palmerston, south of Darwin, in connection with the incident that allegedly occurred there earlier that day.

The American has been granted bail to appear in Darwin Local Court at a later date.

Since 2012, The Marine Rotational Force has stationed personnel across Australia’s Top End at various military bases.

Starting with just 250 Marines in the first year, there is now a 2,500-person air-ground task force.

A 20-year-old US Marine has been charged with rape and assault after being arrested in the Northern Territory on Monday

A US defense spokesman said the Marines were assisting NT Police with the investigation.

The spokesperson said that the US Defense Force ‘will not tolerate this type of behavior and is committed to enforcing high standards of good order and discipline, and upholding justice and the rule of law,” he said.

The Marine base at Robertson Barracks is said to have been closed.

None of the 150 U.S. military personnel can leave the base to receive visitors, under what the spokesman called a “restricted status” on the base.

The Americans were due to leave Darwin in October after the joint Predators Run exercise.

Predators Run was the NT’s largest Australian-led military exercise but came to a tragic conclusion when three Marines were killed in a crash.

U.S. Marine Corps crew chief Corporal Spencer Collart, 21, pilot Capt. Eleanor LeBeau, 29, and Major Tobin Lewis, 37, died when their Boeing MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed to the ground and caught fire at the remote Melville Island, 80 km north of Darwin in late August.

No Australian members were involved.

In addition to Australian and American troops, Indonesia, East Timor and the Philippines also took part in the training.

The Robertson Barracks, where 150 US Marines are stationed, was placed on lockdown following the arrest

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Last year’s Marine Rotation Force – Darwin was joined by ten MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft used in training exercises with the Australian Defense Force

The Marine Rotational Force – Darwin is an example of what the Marine Corps calls Marine Air Ground Task Forces. It is one of three elements of the US Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, headquartered in Hawaii.

Since 2012, the MRF-D has spent six months each year in Darwin undergoing training designed to increase the Marines’ interoperability with the Australian Defense Force and other regional partners.

Each MRF-D rotation in recent years has had three main elements: ground combat, aviation combat, and logistics combat.

The MRF-D personnel are from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, and are joined by ships and Marines from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Courtney in Okinawa.

The rotation involves 2,500 personnel, who came with ten Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, as well as Viper attack helicopters and Venom utility helicopters. This year’s rotation will involve a battery of M777 howitzers.

Most visiting troops are based at Robertson Barracks in Darwin, but some have in the past been deployed to Lavarack Barracks in Townsville in far north Queensland.

The Marines train extensively in the Northern Territory, but also participate in exercises outside Australia, including with troops from New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Tonga and the French Pacific Forces South Seas.

Major live-fire exercises involving Australian Defense Force units are taking place at Bradshaw Field Training Area and Mount Bundey Training Area in the Northern Territory, as well as Shoalwater Bay on Queensland’s Capricorn Coast.

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