Broome craftsman who tied up three young Indigenous children with cable ties after they broke into a backyard swimming pool ‘was making a lawful citizen’s arrest’, detective tells court

A craftsman who tied up three indigenous children with cable ties while they were on his family’s forbidden property has made a lawful citizen’s arrest, a detective told a court.

Matej Radelic appeared in Broome District Court on Thursday to answer three counts of aggravated assault after tying up the children, aged six, seven and eight, with a cable tie in March after catching them swimming in the estate’s pool.

Detective Chief Inspector Jarrad Collins was testifying about his arrest of Radelic after police were called to the Cable Beach area in Broome in northern Western Australia.

During cross-examination, Sergeant Collins confirmed that he had written a report on the evening of the incident in which he described Radelic’s act as a ‘lawful citizen’s arrest’.

Perth barrister Seamus Rafferty SC asked the detective if he still believed Radelic’s arrest was legal.

“Yes,” Sergeant Collins replied.

In his closing speech, Mr Raffery reflected on this response, saying: ‘God knows how he (Sergeant Collins) charged him (Radelic) after that,’ according to a report by The Australian.

The court was also shown bodycam footage from the day of the incident, in which Radelic spoke extensively to police about his frustrations over the repeated vandalism suffered by both his and his parents’ property.

Matej Radelic is facing three counts of aggravated assault after he tied up three Indigenous children, ages six, seven and eight, with a cable tie in March after catching them swimming in a pool on property owned by his parents.

He told officers there had been four previous incidents at the properties where rocks and paving stones from the pool area had been used to smash sliding doors and windows.

Radelic claimed the repairs cost him more than $10,000 and hampered his efforts to sell the home.

“Who is going to repair this damage now?” he asked.

‘I can’t even sell the house. I should have sold it today.

‘They’ve been to my house three times already and have turned my whole house upside down.

“How many times does this place have to be trashed? Every time it happens, I’m just paying for it all the time.”

“Are they going to pay for it? Are they going to take their Centrelink benefits and pay for it?

‘Fix the windows and two days later it’s broken again.

‘Everything is locked, everything is secured, but they are jumping the fence all the time.

“There are no consequences for anyone, only me.”

An officer responds, “I can understand your frustration.”

According to Radelic, the situation had ‘gotten out of hand’.

“It escalates, escalates, escalates until someone gets hurt or goes to jail,” he said.

He told officers he was “holding” the three children.

“I put them down and never touched them again,” he explains in the footage.

Radelic claims an older leader escaped when he caught the three children in the pool, but then returned to his property to threaten him.

Images of the three tied up children sparked outrage from Western Australian Premier Roger Cook, who called the footage “confronting”, “disturbing” and “shocking”.

“The boy was still outside, he had such a big knife. He hit my car twice,” Radelic said.

He said the children’s mother also came onto his property.

“I told her, wait outside the gate, I called the police and I said, calm down, girl,” he told officers.

‘They’re fine just standing in the barn.

“All these other people showed up and started threatening me. I told them to stay off the property and that was it.”

Radelic also said he would not have held the children if he had known the police would arrive soon.

“I’ll tie them up with cable ties and wait for you,” he told the officers that day.

‘I mean, it took you a while to get here, but if you were here in 10 minutes, it wouldn’t have been a problem.

“If I let them go, there will be no consequences at all. I want to sue the mother and the whole family.”

The court also heard that police arrived at the house 37 minutes after Radelic called, despite the property being a five-minute drive from Broome police station.

Mr Rafferty produced documents showing that police had classified the incident as a ‘priority matter’ of 3, meaning that other incidents considered more serious took precedence.

He said Radelic had carried out his duties as required in a citizen’s arrest by notifying police of the matter as soon as possible.

Mr Rafferty asked Sgt Collins if it was ‘just not good enough’ that police had not arrived earlier.

“I wish we had gotten there sooner,” he admitted.

When officers questioned Radelic about tying up the children in the footage, he said: “If I have to go to jail I will, but this is ridiculous.”

“I own the property and I have no rights to it,” he said.

“Who’s going to protect me? I pay taxes, I do all the right things, I work 12 hours a day, six days a week, and my house is being vandalized all the time.”

Police prosecutor Michael Gregg said Radelic had other options.

He noticed that the children were already obedient before they were tied up.

“The circumstances were simply not sufficient to justify the violence,” he told the court.

Magistrate Deen Potter has reserved his decision until October.

Footage of the incident, showing two crying children, sparked outrage and threatened to tear the Broome community apart.

Western Australian Premier Roger Cook called the footage “confronting”, “disturbing” and “shocking”.

Western Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Jacqueline McGowan-Jones, said in a statement that she was “shocked” by the incident.

Following the incident, extra police officers were deployed to Broome due to rising tensions in the community.