A tradesman who cable-tied the hands of three young Aboriginal children and then filmed them has been found guilty of two counts of aggravated common assault.
Shocking footage posted to Facebook showed a girl, six, and boys, seven and eight, in tears with their hands tied together outside a home in the Broome suburb of Cable Beach, Western Australia in March this year.
Matej Radelic, 46, an air-conditioning installation boss, had a single day trial last month after he pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated common assault but on Friday was found guilty of two of those charges.
The children had been swimming in Radelic’s parents’ backyard pool without permission when he restrained them.
He was acquitted of the third assault charge by Magistrate Deen Potter as that child was restrained for a shorter time period and was able to leave after he broke free.
In footage of the incident obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia, Radelic can be heard complaining to the person recording him: ‘They are on my property.
‘It’s not the first time – six times [this has happened],’ he claimed.
Mat Radelic, who also goes by Matej Radelich, has been found guilty of two of three counts of aggravated common assault
Daily Mail Australia previously revealed he is a local air conditioning company boss who complained his parents home had been ‘targeted’ by children six times
Regional WA Acting Assistant Commissioner Rod Wilde said a neighbour called police at 1.35pm on Tuesday after noticing the children swimming in an ‘unoccupied’ pool.
‘About 10 minutes later police received a call from a male person who [allegedly] said he had restrained three children for causing damage in that backyard,’ Commissioner Wilde said.
‘Police attended and located two children at that time – one had left – who had [allegedly] been cable tied at that premises.’
Police will allege 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 Australian newspaper earlier on Wednesday.
The six-year-old girl and the seven-year-old boy were bound with cable ties at the Broome property on Tuesday afternoon
An earlier photo on Facebook showed a third child tied up (pictured)
‘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.’
The relative said Radelic 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.
After officers arrived at the property, Radelic was taken into custody and interviewed.
His company’s website has been taken offline after it was bombarded by one-star Google reviews in the wake of the incident, and the business phone is switched off.
Daily Mail Australia understands the home where the alleged incident occurred was put up for sale recently.
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