The kids were just having fun in the pool.
A 45-year-old Australian was charged this Tuesday, March 5, after having attacked, the day before, three young children whom he had found swimming in the swimming pool of an unoccupied house, at Cable Beach, in the northwest from Australia.
In a statement, Western Australia Police said the man had detained a 6-year-old girl and two boys aged 7 and 8.
He had surprised the children swimming in the pool of an unoccupied house in the neighborhood in which they were located.
The forty-year-old then tied up at least two of the three children with cables, to hold them while waiting for the police to arrive early Monday afternoon.
“Not old enough to understand the consequences”
A video was posted on social media and shows two of the children tied up, crying, while the oldest managed to flee the scene.
All were taken care of by emergency services and entrusted to their parents.
The police declared themselves “dismayed” by the broadcast of these images and called for calm.
State Children's Commissioner Jacqueline McGowan-Jones said she was troubled by the video, which she was able to view.
“They appear to be very young children.
They seem quite scared.
He's a pretty big man.
And they seem very nervous,” Jacqueline McGowan-Jones told Australian public broadcaster ABC on Tuesday.
“They are not old enough to understand the causes and effects, the consequences of their actions,” she added.
Strong emotion in the Aboriginal community
The man has been charged with aggravated assault by Western Australia Police and is due to appear in a local court on March 25.
It was notably estimated by the authorities that “the force used to control” the three children “was not proportionate”, taking into account their age and their vulnerability.
As a reminder, criminal liability in this Australian state is only effective from the age of 10.
According to the images, the three children are of Aboriginal origin, which caused great excitement within the local community, specifies the BBC.
Indeed, Aboriginal Australians aged 10 to 17 are 29 times more likely than non-Aboriginal children to be placed in detention, according to the latest national statistics.