Australian man charged with assault after allegedly using cable ties to detain children

A 45-year-old Australian man has been charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly tied three Aboriginal children with cable ties to restrain them, on Tuesday (Mar 5). The incident has been widely criticised with top Australian officials saying that they are appalled by the footage.

What we know about the incident

The police were called to a house in Western Australia’s town of Broome around 2:15 pm (local time), on Tuesday about an alleged trespassing incident where they found two children tied up with cable ties.

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The 45-year-old had reportedly restrained three children – two boys aged seven and eight and a six-year-old girl – after he found them swimming on a vacant property. The third child, an eight-year-old boy according to the police, had been detained but fled before the officers arrived.

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The video of the incident shows two children sitting next to each other near the man’s garage, as he argues with a crowd gathered around his house urging him to untie the children.

In the widely shared video the boy and the girl, who appear to be Indigenous, can be heard crying in the footage which was live-streamed on Facebook. However, till the police arrived the children remained restrained. The policearrested the 45-year-old White man.

One of the women who was filming later told the local media that the children had been crying for their mother. “They were frightened. They were crying, shaking and singing out for their mum,” local resident Leandra McKenzie told 9News Australia.

The paramedics who arrived at the scene assessed the two children and they were reunited with their family shortly after the police arrived, said the local officials.

Charges against the 45-year-old

On Wednesday (Mar 6), WA police acting assistant commissioner Rod Wilde said that the man had called the police saying that he had restrained three children.

However, Wilde noted that while there are provisions that allow people to make a citizen’s arrest where someone can be restrained, there are conditions around it.

“Whatever force you apply to arrest someone needs to be reasonable, given the age of the person involved, the vulnerability, and all of those things that be taken into account by the court,” said the WA police official.

However, in this case, the charges against the 45-year-old stem from his “disproportionate” actions in this scenario.

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“Children under 10 are not going to be criminally responsible,” said Wilde. The man has been granted bail and he is due to appear before the court on March 25.

Australian lawmakers react

State MP for the region of Kimberley, Divina D’Anna, who is a Yawuru, Nimanburr and Bardi woman, called for calm in the community in the wake of the incident.

D’Anna told Guardian Australia that the video was “disturbing and confronting” but refused to make any further comments pending police investigation.

Meanwhile, WA children’s commissioner, Jacqueline McGowan-Jones said that she was disturbed by the footage.

“It would appear these are very young and small children. They appear to be quite frightened in the circumstances. He is quite a large man. And they appear to be very nervous,” McGowan-Jones told ABC.

(With inputs from agencies)