A former police officer turned federal politician has expressed horror after three children were allegedly tied up with cables by a shopkeeper in Western Australia.
Shocking images posted on Facebook showed a six-year-old girl and eight-year-old boys crying with their hands tied outside a house on Conkerberry Road, near Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia, on Tuesday afternoon.
WA Greens senator and former police officer Dorinda Cox said the images were disturbing and confronting.
“We can never accept that children as young as six are humiliated, that their tiny wrists are tied and they are left to cry in the sun,” he said.
“As a mother, watching these children beg for their freedom and beg in fear was like witnessing a slow replay of the historic racial abuse experienced by previous generations of First Nations people.”
The children appear tied up in a photo posted on Facebook (pictured)
Mrs Cox said: “Children are always damaged by this type of behaviour.” There is no justification for instilling terror in young children.
“We must confront these images in the spirit of telling the truth, no matter what it looks like… as a community, we all have a shared responsibility to overcome and challenge abuse, violence, racism and the attitudes that encourage these behaviors toward others.” children”.
The senator also had a message for her former and current colleagues.
“I call on WA Police, all Australian politicians and the general public to stand together and send a clear message that we can never accept this happening to any child in our society, under our watch.” , said.
Tradie who allegedly tied up children (pictured) has been arrested
The six-year-old girl and seven-year-old boy were tied up with zip ties at the Broome property on Tuesday afternoon.
WA Children’s Commissioner Jacqueline McGowan-Jones was also dismayed.
‘It seems that these are very young children. Under the circumstances, they seem quite scared. He’s a pretty big man. And they seem to be very nervous,” he told ABC Radio Perth on Wednesday.
‘These children are only six and seven years old. They do not have the neurological development to understand cause and effect, consequences and actions. And that is legally known.’
The tradie, 45, is believed to have been working at the house for a local air conditioning company and discovered the children swimming in a pool at the house.
A relative of young children said the man “rejected” her when she tried to intervene.
A fourth child was also in the pool, but managed to escape and alert family members of 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 to pick them up, he pushed me and my mother out of the garden,” she told the newspaper. Western Australia.
“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), we were just shouting at him, telling him to let them go, but he just didn’t want to listen to us.”
WA Greens senator and former police officer Dorinda Cox (pictured) said the images were disturbing and confronting.
The family member said the man 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.
Western Australian Police confirmed a man has been arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault.
Police were initially called to the property for reports of trespassing.
“The man, from Broome, was detained, questioned about the matter and charged,” Western Australian Police said.
“It is alleged that the force used to restrain the children was not proportionate to the circumstances.”
He was granted bail and is due to appear in court at a later date.
Since then, the local air conditioning company has been subject to online abuse and one-star reviews on Google.
Witness Leandra McKenzie said The children were distraught and called for their mother.
The children were restrained for about an hour on a day when temperatures reached 33°C.
“They were scared, they were crying, they were shaking and they were singing for their mother,” he said.
‘It would have been more than an hour. . . We yelled at him to tell them to let them go. . . but he just didn’t give up.
The witness stated that the children were tied up for up to an hour, on a day when temperatures reached 33°C.
The relative said the children knew it was wrong to enter the property, but said they were “just kids” and were trying to cool off on a hot day.