By Rebecca Peppiatt and Amber Wilkinson
A 45-year-old Broome man has gone on trial on Thursday, defending his decision to cable-tie three young children and detain them before police arrived in March.
Mat Radelic claims he made a citizen’s arrest of the children, aged six, seven and eight, after finding them in the backyard swimming pool of a vacant home he was in the process of selling.
The incident made headlines after a passerby live-streamed their interaction with Radelic during the incident.
Mat Radelic and the three children he allegedly tied up (inset). Credit: 9 News Perth (composite image)
“They were frightened ... they were crying, shaking and singing out for their mum,” Leandra McKenzie told 9 News Perth at the time.
“It would have been over an hour ... we were yelling at him to tell him to release them ... but he just wouldn’t give up.”
But during his one-day trial, Radelic’s lawyer Seamus Rafferty told Broome Magistrates Court his client had made four complaints to police in the preceding three weeks over property damage he believed had been perpetrated by those children, leaving him “frustrated”.
Rafferty told the court Radelic had suffered smashed windows and pavers and had been broken into, leaving him with a $10,000 damage bill.
He claims no arrests were made over the property damage.
“This is a man who you know had been a victim of crime four times in a short period of time before that day,” Rafferty told the court.
“He called police, he’s not a vigilante. He’s a man who was protecting his property.
“What else is he meant to do – keep letting it happen?”
He told the court Radelic made a citizen’s arrest of the children on March 5 and called local police, telling them he had three kids tied up after finding them trespassing on his property and swimming in the pool.
The court heard officers then took 35 minutes to reach the house, where Radelic was heard on body-worn camera footage played to the court telling them about the previous damage to the house.
“There’s no consequences for them, but there is for me?” he said to them.
“It just spirals out of control … until someone gets hurt.”
Radelic was charged with three counts of aggravated assault.
“It’s not about emotion, it’s not about race or vigilantism, it’s a property owner who ticked every single box in terms of a citizen’s arrest,” Rafferty said. “The arrest was lawful.”
Police prosecutors argued his actions were “dehumanising” and that using zip ties to detain the children was unreasonable and unnecessary.
“The children had clearly been compliant, they left the pool, waited long enough for him to go to his car and get the cable-ties,” they said.
“Options were available. The circumstances simply weren’t there to justify any use of force.”
Magistrate Deen Potter will hand down his decision on October 4.
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