An ex-cop who is now a federal politician has expressed her horror after three children were allegedly cable tied by a tradie in Western .
Shocking footage posted to Facebook showed a six-year-old girl and boys aged seen and eight in tears with their hands tied together outside a Conkerberry Road home near Cable Beach in Broome, Western , on Tuesday afternoon.
WA Greens senator and former police officer, Dorinda Cox, said the footage was disturbing and confronting.
‘We can never be OK with watching children as young as six being humiliated, their tiny wrists being tied up and leaving them crying in the hot sun,’ she said.
‘As a mother, watching these children begging for their freedom and in fear was like watching a slow repeat of the historical racially-based abuse experienced by previous generations of First Nations people.’
The children are pictured tied up in a photo that was posted to Facebook (pictured)
Ms Cox said ‘children are forever damaged by this type of behaviour. There is no justification for instilling terror into small children.
‘We must confront such footage in the spirit of truth telling, however confronting this is… as a community, we all have a shared responsibility to rise above and challenge abuse, violence, racism and attitudes that encourage these behaviours towards children.’
The senator also had a message for both her former and current colleagues.
‘I call upon WA police, all n politicians and the broader public to stand united and send out a clear message that we can never accept this happening to any child in our society, on our watch,’ she said.
The tradie who allegedly tied up the children (pictured) has been arrested
The six-year-old girl and the seven-year-old boy were bound with cable ties at the Broome property on Tuesday afternoon
WA’s children’s commissioner Jacqueline McGowan-Jones was also appalled.
‘It would appear these are very young and small children. They appear to be quite frightened in the circumstances. He is quite a large man. And they appear to be very nervous,’ she told ABC Radio Perth on Wednesday.
‘These children are only six and seven. They don’t have the neurodevelopment to understand cause and effect and consequences and actions. And that is legally known.’
It is believed the tradie, 45, had been working at the house for a local air-conditioning company and discovered the children swimming in a pool at the home.
A relative of young children said she was ‘pushed away’ by the man when she tried to intervene.
A fourth boy had also been in the pool but managed to flee and alert family members to what was going on.
A woman, who is related to the little girl and the seven-year-old boy, livestreamed the shocking ordeal and said the tradie refused to let them go.
‘When we tried to walk in there to get them he pushed me and my mum out of the yard,’ she told the West n.
‘When we pulled up there, and when that man was pushing me out of the gate… the little (eight-year-old) boy snapped the cable ties with his hands and then he just jumped over the fence and ran down the road.
‘It was just upsetting, we were so angry with (the tradie), 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 footage was disturbing and confronting
The relative said the man kept saying he was ‘waiting for police’ to arrive.
She said one of the kids 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 Police confirmed a man was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault.
Police were initially called to the property over reports of trespassing.
‘The man, from Broome, was taken into custody, interviewed over the matter and charged,’ Western Police said.
‘It is alleged the force used to restrain the children was not proportionate in the circumstances.’
He was granted bail and is due to appear in court at a later date.
The local air-conditioning company has since been subjected to online abuse and one-star Google ratings.
Witness Leandra McKenzie said the children were distressed and calling out for their mum.
The kids were restrained for about an hour on a day when temperatures soared to 33C
‘They were frightened, they were crying, shaking and singing out for their mum,’ she said.
‘It would have been over an hour it was . . . we were yelling at him to tell them to release them . . . but he just wouldn’t give up.’
The witness claimed the children were tied up for as long as an hour, on a day when temperatures soared to 33C.
The relative said the children knew it was wrong to enter the property but said they were ‘just kids’ and were trying to cool down on a hot day.