A father who reported Indigenous children running amok and swimming in his pool to police claims he was the victim of a revenge attack in which 15 liters of white paint was poured into his pool.
Broome, in Western Australia’s northwest, was at the center of controversy last week after an air conditioning trader was accused of allegedly tying up three Indigenous children who had been swimming in their parents’ pool with cables.
Matej Radelic was charged with three counts of aggravated assault after shocking video footage was broadcast live from the front of his parents’ Cable Beach home.
Local resident Lee Du Bray, who grew up in the seaside town and has two Indigenous children, expressed sympathy for Radelic’s apparently drastic measure, as his swimming pool was similarly invaded six years ago.
But Du Bray told Daily Mail Australia that when he reported the incidents to police, “revenge was swift.”
The teens returned twice: the first time with a can of paint they poured into the pool, and another time to tear up the patio and split open the pool’s fiberglass floor with star-shaped fence stakes.
Indigenous children invaded Mr Du Bray’s Broome swimming pool in January 2018, into which they then poured a can of paint and vandalized his garden.
When the police were called, the children returned to pour a large can of white paint into the pool, ruining the filtration system, and then returned to pierce the fiberglass skin with star picks.
Pots were broken in the yard of Mr Du Bray’s home in the Chinatown neighborhood of Broome, leaving him with a total damage bill of $100,000.
The destruction of his property, a former pearling quarter in Roebuck Bay’s historic Broome Chinatown, ended up costing him $100,000.
Du Bray, who said he loved Broome but feared the youth crime epidemic meant the idyllic town was at risk, said he had spent $50,000 installing a fiberglass swimming pool in his backyard.
‘The moment I came out, the pool was invaded by local children. “I have security cameras that caught the children jumping the fence,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘There were up to a dozen cases and I called the police. What would happen if a child drowned in that pool? They would throw the book at me and I would be in jail.
“When they were told to leave, they returned later and emptied an entire four-gallon can of paint into the pool.
‘It was white paint. It ruined the entire filtration system and of course there was the cost of emptying, cleaning and refilling the pool.
Two Indigenous youths next to Lee Du Bray’s pool while trespassing on his property in January 2018, following which “revenge” attacks were carried out to destroy the pool.
The vandals dumped the paint can (left) in Mr Du Bray’s garden and two weeks later returned with star pickets to punch holes in the pool, destroying the fiberglass skin (right) and flooding its foundation.
A child stands on the terrace ready to jump into the pool while others play near the pool which was later destroyed in “revenge” attacks after the police were called.
Then, a few weeks later, they came back and launched star pickets directly through the fiberglass bottom of the pool.
‘This undermined the foundation of the pool and it had to be reinstalled and filled.
‘At least $100,000 went down the drain and the children were not even brought before a magistrate. I feel sorry for that poor merchant.
Mr Du Bray’s garden was also destroyed, with pots broken and debris scattered everywhere.
Security cameras from the pool invasion show children frolicking in the water, wandering around the edges and one child even climbing onto the terrace of the house to jump.
Du Bray said “revenge” attacks were a reality for anyone who reported or challenged youth crime.
Du Bray, who runs his own equipment procurement business, said he was desperate for Broome.
Images of three indigenous children tied by cables to a Broome tradie have sparked global outrage, but some city residents say invasions by children with hoes are just one part of the wave of youth crime.
Air conditioning trader Matej Radelic has been widely condemned for allegedly restraining three Indigenous children with zip ties in Broome.
“When Broome was nice, 20 or 25 years ago, there was no racial discord, there were no drugs, there were some really wonderful local Aboriginal families, and there still are.
‘I lived with an Aboriginal family and when I came home from work, the children would wait for me with their towels and I would drive to Cable Beach to swim.
‘I fell in love with the place, but now, these children are not forced to attend school. There are drugs and alcohol and they are not being disciplined and they wander the streets at night.
“People say ‘oh poor kids, they come from a disadvantaged background’, but you are responsible for your own actions and there are Aboriginal people who do that.”
Du Bray cited the example of an indigenous family in Broome whose children “went to school, grew up without a conviction and have now had children of their own who have grown up as good children”.
But he said many children in the city were “totally out of control.”
Five children swimming in Mr Du Bray’s pool after trespassing on the property, which he reported to the police, saying that in “revenge” the children returned and poured paint into it and then impaled the surface of the pool with star stakes .
Lee Du Bray said he “fell in love with Broome” and knew Indigenous families who were upstanding citizens, but many were involved in a drug and crime wave that gripped the town.
‘I don’t know why people don’t say it. They call you racist.
Broome’s tourism industry, centered on the world-famous Cable Beach, camel riding, the town’s history as a pearl port and its world-class resorts, has suffered a slowdown with a rise in youth crime.
Restaurants with outdoor dining had closed because of nighttime wanderings, Du Bray said, by “angry and aggressive” indigenous youth.
“You were sitting at an outdoor table and these scary kids, teenagers, would come up to you and stand there like they were ready to hit you,” he said.
“It’s very frustrating that nothing is being done. If you look at Alice Springs (the town in the Outback Northern Territory that has also suffered a wave of youth crime).
‘It’s the canary in the coal mine. “In 10 years there will be no one living there.”