A trader who tied the hands of three young Aboriginal children with cables and then filmed them has been found guilty of two counts of aggravated assault.
Shocking footage posted to Facebook in March this year showed a girl, six, and boys, seven and eight, in tears, with their hands tied together outside a house in the Broome suburb of Cable Beach, Western Australia.
Matej Radelic, 46, an air conditioning plant boss, was given a one-day trial last month after pleading not guilty to three charges of aggravated assault, but was found guilty of two of those charges on Friday.
The children had been swimming in Radelic’s parents’ pool without permission when he restrained them.
He was acquitted of the third charge by Magistrate Deen Potter because the child was held for a shorter period and was allowed to leave after breaking 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, also called Matej Radelich, was found guilty of two of the three counts of aggravated assault
Daily Mail Australia previously revealed he is a local air conditioning company boss who complained his parents’ home was ‘targeted’ by children six times
WA Regional Acting Assistant Commissioner Rod Wilde said a neighbor called police at 1.35pm on Tuesday after seeing the children swimming in an ‘unoccupied’ pool.
‘About ten minutes later the police received a call from a male subject [allegedly] said he restrained three children because they caused damage in that backyard,” Commissioner Wilde said.
‘The police located two children at that time – one had left – who had done so [allegedly] are tied up with cables on that site.’
Police will allege a fourth boy had also been in the pool but managed to flee and alerted family members to what was happening.
A woman, who is related to the little girl and seven-year-old boy, streamed the shocking ordeal live and said the tradie refused to let them go.
“When we tried to walk in to get them, he pushed me and my mother out of the yard,” she told the newspaper Western Australian newspaper earlier on Wednesday.
The six-year-old girl and 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 stopped there, and when that guy pushed me out of the fence… the little (eight-year-old) boy broke the zip ties with his hands and then jumped over the fence and ran down. away.
“It was just disturbing, we were so angry because (the tradie) just yelled at him and told him to let them go, but he just wouldn’t listen to us.”
The family member said Radelic kept saying he was “waiting for the police to come.”
She said one of the children also claimed the man told them he would “hit them with a big stick.”
Paramedics from St John Ambulance assessed the children, who have now been reunited with their families.
After officers arrived at the property, Radelic was taken into custody and interviewed.
His company’s website was taken offline after it was bombarded with one-star Google reviews following the incident, and the business phone has been disabled.
Daily Mail Australia understands the house where the alleged incident occurred recently went up for sale.
He was later charged and granted bail to appear at Broome Magistrates Court on March 25.