Expert warned against wrist X-rays used by AFP to prosecute children as adult people smugglers

Expert radiologist Dr James Christie says the use of wrist X-rays to prosecute children as adult people smugglers was akin to ‘child abuse’. Illustration: Ben Sanders/The Guardian

An expert radiologist says Australian federal police continued to use wrist X-rays to prosecute children as adult people smugglers after he had given unequivocal evidence of the technique’s unreliability, something he now says was “just wrong” and akin to “child abuse”.

Last week, six Indonesian boys won a major case overturning their convictions as adult people smugglers in 2010 amid the highly charged political atmosphere around border protection.