West Lakes fury over boys fishing goes viral on video

The father of one of the boys threatened and intimidated by adults, who have since apologised, for fishing in West Lakes has explained why he took to social media to share their story.

• Video: Adults rage at kids for fishing

The father of a teenage boy – who was verbally attacked for fishing – has defended his son’s character and actions, while calling on the community to reach a peaceful solution.

Tony Garland, posted the disturbing video on Facebook, showing the threats and the intimidations a group of 13-year-old boys were subjected to for fishing in West Lakes on Saturday.

The video went viral and sparked condemnation towards the adults who flung a teenager’s bag, threatened the group, and rained down profanities on them, including, “the police is on their way”, “you take this phone away”, “piss off”, “you go away”, as well as “shut the f — k up” and “f — k off”.

Mr Garland said he was on a work trip in Thailand when the incident occured, which made him feel quite helpless in responding to the attack launched by grown adults.

He said he wasn’t able to help his son, Bailey, and his friends.

A man takes a child's backpack and throws it away. Picture: Facebook

A man was seen approaching the boys and yelling at them. Picture: Facebook

“As a father working abroad, I’ve found it deeply troubling to witness my son and his friends facing such confrontations from adults,” he said.

“These boys are truly exceptional young individuals — I’ve known them for years through primary school and the SMOSH football club … they’re highly skilled in fish handling and deeply committed to environmental care.

“These boys deserve praise for being out on their bikes, embracing the outdoors, and enjoying life rather than being cooped up inside with video games.”

However, Mr Garland appreciated the need for nature preservation.

“Trampling reeds to reach the islands is undoubtedly wrong, and I fully support the idea of installing clear signage to protect bird breeding areas,” he said.

“But this is not an appropriate response from adults.

“Surely there is a way for us to find a middle ground.”

City of Charles Sturt chief executive Paul Sutton earlier revealed the children were not doing anything wrong from a legal standpoint.

“The by-laws say that fishing is permitted in the lake – but the fishermen need to be more than six metres away from any property boundary,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the adults in the video – a woman – has apologised.

The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the community had been experiencing an ongoing issue with teenagers in the area generally, who had been committing a “soup of mischief” on the weekends and after school.

However, when asked if the teenagers they threatened on Saturday were known to previously cause trouble in the neighbourhood, she admitted she wasn’t sure.

“Look, really, I don’t know … I really don’t know because there are lots of kids,” she said.

The woman admitted she, along with the other adults, acted out of line.

“In hindsight, I think everybody is feeling very embarrassed about the behaviour,” she said.

“I guess we’re all human and we all make mistakes and we can all get revved up but in any case, as adults, we were expected to show a better way of managing issues.

“We’re all very sorry that this has come to this.”

Originally published as West Lakes fury over boys fishing goes viral on video