A Western Australian man who detained three Aboriginal children, aged between six and eight, with cable ties after finding them on his Broome property called them “little shits” and told police he held them for more than 30 minutes because otherwise there would be “no consequences”.
Matej Radelic, 46, appeared in Broome magistrates court on Thursday charged with three counts of aggravated common assault. He has pleaded not guilty.
Police body-worn camera footage of the incident, a recording of a triple-zero call made by Radelic and a two-page statement of agreed facts has been released by the court.
Radelic is arguing that while he did detain the children after they trespassed and damaged his property on 5 March, the force used against them was reasonable and necessary.
The statement of agreed facts shows that a neighbour called police about 1.28pm that day to report that three children were swimming in a pool on Radelic’s property without permission.
Radelic arrived at the property in Cable Beach a short time later, according to the document. At 1.40pm, Radelic made a call to emergency services, which lasted less than four minutes.
“I just want to report a break-in … I caught three kids, I’ve got them tied up so I need someone to attend to take the kids away for me,” he said in the recording of the triple-zero call tendered in court.
The responder asked their age, to which Radelic responded that they were five or six, but that an older one had “bolted” and he could not catch him.
“They’re not injured or anything at all?” the responder asked.
“Nah, they’re just scared and crying,” he said.
“Yeah, no wonder,” she replies.
Radelic said in the call that the group were “trashing” his pool, and he had just spent $6,000 preparing the property for sale, and was expecting to sign the sales contract that day.
“Those little shits came in and [indistinct] the pool again,” he said.
The statement of agreed facts shows that police did not arrive at the property until 2.17pm – 37 minutes after the call.
Police body-worn camera footage also showed Radelic speaking to officers for about nine minutes. He tells them that it was the fifth time people had broken into his property, damaging windows and tiling around the pool area.
Neighbours had alerted him to the kids in the pool, Radelic told police.
“I restrained them, I put them here to sit, and then I didn’t touch them,” he said, gesturing towards his carport. The children had been removed by the time the video was taken.
“Their mother came in, inside the yard, all I said to her was ‘just wait outside the fence, I’ve called the police, just calm down, they’re all fine, they’re sitting in the shade’.
“People started turning up and being more and more aggressive … it’s just like mob rules. I said to them: ‘who the heck is going to fix these damages now’ … every time this happens, there’s no consequences for anyone, I just pay … are you going to take their Centrelink payments to pay for it?”
One officer responded: “Given their age as well, there’s not much going to happen unfortunately.”
The statement of agreed facts confirms the children committed trespass and criminal damage offences at Radelic’s property “notwithstanding [their] ages”.
When asked by an officer why he used cable ties to restrain the children, Radelic said: “One of them already done a runner … how the heck am I going to restrain them, should I use a physical force?
“My logical thing was: zip tie them, sit them down and wait for you guys. I mean, you took a bit of time to come here, but if you came within 10 minutes, it wouldn’t be a problem.
“They sit for half an hour, 45 [minutes], so it is what it is. I mean, what would you do? I mean, if I let them go, there’s not going to be any consequences at all.”
Radelic said an older child threatened him with a large knife and rocks after the incident, and an officer who said the police were trying to control the situation remarked that Radelic had been “calm” and “chill as”.
The recording ends when the officers say they have to call “their boss” to determine what will happen to Radelic.
“I’m ready to take consequences from my end, if I done something wrong, let me know, but this is ridiculous,” he told the officers.
“The owner of the property, I got no friggin rights.”
A verdict is expected to be handed down in Radelic’s case next month.
