As it happened: WA news on Monday, May 26

An 11-year-old boy has allegedly been strangled by an adult during a soccer match in Perth’s northern suburbs yesterday.

WA Police have accused a 46-year-old man from Watermans Bay of approaching the boy at Abbeville Park between 11am and 1pm.

The child did not require medical treatment, but the man has been charged with impeding another person’s breathing or blood circulation by applying pressure to the neck.

In a club statement, Mindarie Football Club president Lee Hughes confirmed the incident, which he said involved an opposition spectator.

“We’re cooperating fully with the opposition club and the relevant authorities,” he said.

“While passion and competitiveness are part of football, we must always remember the game is for the players, especially the children.

“Their safety, enjoyment and development come first.”

We’re bringing our blog to a close for the day, thank you for joining us. We will have more for you in the next live news coverage.

Here’s what made headlines today:

• An e-scooter rider is fighting for life after being hit by a car in Middle Swan.

• The number of people waiting longer than 30 days for urgent surgery has tripled in Western Australia, according to the state opposition.

• From now on, approved pet shops can only sell dogs or puppies supplied by approved animal rescue shelters and pounds who have got a permit from their local government.

• The Kalgoorlie teen who stole two cars – one with a baby and toddler inside, and another with a nine-year-old boy – has been jailed for a minimum of seven months.

• Sally Fitzgibbons has suffered more heartbreak at Margaret River, the veteran enduring a cruel loss to world No.1 Gabriela Bryan that also wrecked her 2026 season start.

• An 11-year-old boy has allegedly been strangled by an adult during a soccer match in Perth’s northern suburbs.

Thank you again for tuning in. We’ll see you back here tomorrow for more news you need to know.

An 11-year-old boy has allegedly been strangled by an adult during a soccer match in Perth’s northern suburbs yesterday.

WA Police have accused a 46-year-old man from Watermans Bay of approaching the boy at Abbeville Park between 11am and 1pm.

The child did not require medical treatment, but the man has been charged with impeding another person’s breathing or blood circulation by applying pressure to the neck.

In a club statement, Mindarie Football Club president Lee Hughes confirmed the incident, which he said involved an opposition spectator.

“We’re cooperating fully with the opposition club and the relevant authorities,” he said.

“While passion and competitiveness are part of football, we must always remember the game is for the players, especially the children.

“Their safety, enjoyment and development come first.”

Sally Fitzgibbons has suffered more heartbreak at Margaret River, the veteran enduring a cruel loss to world No.1 Gabriela Bryan that also wrecked her 2026 season start.

With surfing resuming at the West Australian break on Monday after a three-day break, Fitzgibbons was one of five Australian women in the round of 16.

Molly Picklum, Isabella Nichols and local wildcard Bronte Macaulay all won their match-ups, while Tyler Wright went down.

Fitzgibbons needed to beat Bryan, the defending Margaret Pro champion, to avoid the top-10 mid-season cut for the third successive year.

A victory in the heat would also secure 14th-ranked Fitzgibbons a place on the 2026 Championship Tour after the WSL announced a larger women’s field next year.

If Wright had beaten Lakey Peterson, Fitzgibbons would have requalified, but instead the Californian veteran took the final spot, sending the Australian back to the Challenger Series.

The Kalgoorlie teen who stole two cars – one with a baby and toddler inside, and another with a nine-year-old boy – has been jailed for a minimum of seven months.

The 15-year-old faced Perth Children’s Court today, where the details of his January crime spree were aired, including how he stole a vehicle from a driveway after a mother left the engine on with her sleeping children inside while she carried her groceries into the house.

He then dumped the woman’s 10-month-old and one-year-old sons face down on a random driveway around one kilometre away on a 40-degree day, with the pair found crying by a witness.

A woman rushes to her car after it is stolen by a 15-year-old boy in Kalgoorlie while her son is inside. The teenager was jailed over the car theft on Monday.Credit: WA Police

The parents were terrified during the five-minute ordeal.

The teen then crashed the car and ran through a containers for change building where he came across another car sitting with the engine on, this time with a nine-year-old boy in the front passenger seat.

He jumped in the car and took off at speed as the boy’s mother exited the building and chased after him. She grabbed onto the driver’s door and was dragged 50 metres, sustaining a serious injury to her arm which required surgery.

The boy told police he was terrified as the teen sped away with him still inside the car. After three minutes, he opened the passenger door and jumped out into bushes, injuring himself.

The court heard the teen had a disadvantaged and deprived childhood, with his family introducing him to drugs at the tender age of seven, and normalising criminal activity.

He has shown progress since getting clean while in custody, and is genuinely remorseful for his actions.

He will serve a 15-month sentence, and will be eligible for parole after serving seven months.

Bringing you back to a story we ran this morning and Road Safety Minister Reece Whitby has just commented on the “dangerous” children’s crossing along Stirling Highway.

Presbyterian Ladies’ College principal Cate Begbie spoke out over concerns speeding cars were putting students at risk and had resulted in traffic wardens feeling too unsafe to work there.

Whitby said it was a “very busy” and “very congested” road and that he was surprised so many cars were speeding.

“I’d say to all motorists, you need to take those school safety crossings seriously. Slow down to the 40-kilometre limit. It’s there for a reason,” he said when asked about the issue at a press conference this morning.

“Drivers need to take responsibility. They need to do the right thing. It is unacceptable to speed through an area where there are kids going to school, crossing a busy road.”

He said he would look into any issues impacting the safety of school children on the roads and would also ask to read a letter sent by the school to his predecessor on the issue.

First flagged last year, the WA government’s new Stop Puppy Farming reforms come into effect today.

From now on, approved pet shops can only sell dogs or puppies supplied by approved animal rescue shelters and pounds who have got a permit from their local government.

Local governments will assess applications, with dog-supply approval applications managed by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.

From Monday, pet shops can only sell dogs and puppies from approved shelters.Credit: Getty Images

It would appear the laws couldn’t come at a better time, after a 40-year-old man has been charged with 36 counts of animal cruelty last week.

The RSPCA WA received a cruelty report from the City of Canning about the property in December, with council rangers advising there were a large number of dogs roaming outside the property, two which had been taken away for urgent vet attention.

However, despite support for the new laws from animal welfare groups, there are reports that so far no pet shops have applied for the permit.

The number of people waiting longer than 30 days for urgent surgery has tripled in Western Australia, according to the state opposition.

While the elective surgery wait list is down from a pandemic peak of 33,000 to 29,251; of the 1349 patients who required urgent surgery in March, 305 waited longer than recommended to go under the knife.

Shadow health minister Libby Mettam said the state government needed to address the backlog as a matter of urgency.

“I have spoken to elective surgery patients, these people are not just statistics, they are waiting for life-changing surgery,” she said.

The state government says it is making progress bringing the wait list down, including by providing twilight and night surgeries.

An e-scooter rider is fighting for life this morning after being hit by a car in Middle Swan.

Police say the driver of a White Toyota Camry failed to stop and left the scene at about 12.30am on Sunday at the intersection of Toodyay Road and Roe Highway.

A Kelmscott man, 24, has since been charged with failing to stop and incident occasioning grievous bodily harm. He is due to appear in court tomorrow.

The rider is in Royal Perth Hospital suffering critical injuries.

Here’s what’s making headlines across the nation and around the world today:

• Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is expected to sign off on a new-look Coalition frontbench this week that will reward moderate backers while keeping senior conservative MPs in prominent roles.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says she will remake the Liberal Party to reflect modern Australia.Credit: AAP

• An unusually large number of voters in hospitals and aged care centres had their votes rejected as informal in the May 3 election, potentially affecting the result in at least one closely contested electorate.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says American silence is encouraging Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces launched one of the largest aerial attacks of the war on Sunday, killing at least 12 people.