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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Tamsin Rose, Catie McLeod and Royce Kurmelovs

Call for investigation after media labels five-year-old ‘kindergarten crim’ following NSW police comments

New South Wales police badges
There are ‘very serious questions’ to answer about the origin and intent of the NSW police briefings to media, Aboriginal Legal Service chief Karly Warner says. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

New South Wales’s peak Indigenous legal body has called for an independent investigation after state police briefed media outlets about the alleged involvement of a five-year-old in a break-and-enter and car theft before officers had spoken to the alleged offenders or laid charges.

Repeatedly asked about the incident in the outback town of Bourke over subsequent days, police media refused to officially confirm the ages of the alleged offenders despite two metropolitan mastheads quoting separate officers referring to a five-year-old.

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