The trader who allegedly tied up a group of Indigenous children with zip ties says his actions were not racially motivated and that he regrets the incident.
Shocking images posted on Facebook showed a six-year-old girl and seven- and eight-year-old boys crying with their hands tied outside a house in Broome, Western Australia, on Tuesday afternoon.
Air conditioning installation manager Mat Radelic, 45, was charged with three counts of aggravated assault by Western Australian Police on Wednesday and will appear in court on March 25.
“It didn’t come from hate or anything, just disappointment and then a little bit of anger.”
The merchant claimed that children were trespassing on the property and that he had lost thousands of dollars to juvenile crime. He is considering leaving Broome.
Margaret, 6, and Stuart, 7, (pictured) were distraught and crying for their mother.
Rowena, mother of little Stuart, seven, and Margaret, six, said the man’s alleged actions were a “disgrace” and she desperately asked him if he had children of his own to consider how they would feel in a similar situation.
‘Being behind a fence and seeing my kids tied up like that was a ‘what can I do’ emotion. We just had to wait for the police,” Rowena told A Current Affair.
‘I didn’t feel anything for my children crying there. My son was crying for water and I couldn’t even get him water.’
Rowena, who struggled to speak through tears, said she begged Radelic to free her children but was “afraid” of him because of his size.
The distraught mother said her son had suffered a nightmare and also had a “scratch on the right side of his hand.”
He also questioned possible double standards in the legal system.
‘If it were the other way around, if an Aboriginal man held three white children, like that, and said to the families, you can wait until the police come, if you go to court, the Aboriginal man… they’re gone. “, said.
‘They didn’t even let him out of prison. He would have remained in prison. They would not release him on bail. Maybe they would have accused him of kidnapping.
In a video obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia, Radelic can be heard complaining to the person recording it: ‘They’re on my property.
“It’s not the first time, six times (this has happened),” he said.
Seven-year-old Stuart (pictured) has had a nightmare since and has a scratch on his hand after the incident.
Six-year-old Margaret (pictured) was tied up with her brother for about an hour on a 33C day.
However, Rowena told the show that she was not actually owned by the man.
WA Regional Acting Deputy Commissioner Rod Wilde said a neighbor called police at 1.35pm on Tuesday after noticing children swimming in an “unoccupied” pool.
“About 10 minutes later, police received a call from a man who (allegedly) said he had restrained three children for causing damage in that backyard,” Commissioner Wilde said.
“Police responded and located two children at the time – one was gone – who had (allegedly) been tied up with wires at that location.”
Police will allege that a fourth child had also been in the pool, but managed to flee and alert relatives about what was happening.
A woman, related to the girl and seven-year-old boy, livestreamed the ordeal and said the tradie refused to let them go.
“When we tried to go in there to pick them up, he pushed me and my mother out of the garden,” she told the West Australian newspaper on Wednesday.
“When we got there, and when that man was pushing me out the gate… the little boy (eight years old) broke the cable ties with his hands and then just jumped over the fence and ran down the road. road.
“It was just annoying, we were so angry at (the tradie) that we were just shouting at him, telling him to let them go, but he just didn’t want to listen to us.”
The children’s mother, Rowena, said she begged the shopkeeper to let her children go, but was afraid of their size.
An earlier photo on Facebook showed a third boy tied up who later managed to escape (pictured)
The relative said Radelic kept saying he was “waiting for the police to arrive.”
She said one of the children also claimed the man told them he was going to “hit them with a big stick.”
St John Ambulance paramedics assessed the children, who have since been reunited with their family.
After officers arrived at the property, Radelic was detained and interviewed.
His company’s website was taken offline after being bombarded with one-star reviews on Google in the wake of the incident, and the company’s phone is turned off.
Daily Mail Australia understands the house where the alleged incident occurred was recently put up for sale.
He was subsequently charged and granted bail to appear at Broome Magistrates’ Court on March 25.