Matej Radelic, 46, guilty of cable-tying, assaulting three children on his Western Australia property

A man has been found guilty of two counts of aggravated common assault after restraining three children with cable ties at his property in Cable Beach, Western Australia.

Broome Magistrates Court heard that Matej Radelic, 46, tied the hands of the children — aged six, seven, and eight — after discovering them swimming in his pool on March 5.

The incident, which was partly filmed and uploaded online, had sparked international outrage when it showed the young children bound and visibly distressed.

“I went live on Facebook and recorded the man, and we were telling the man to cut the cable ties off their wrist and just wait for the police … but he just didn’t want them to let go,” neighbour Asharahni Lilwayno told the West Australian at the time.

She said she took a photo of the three bound children before one freed himself and she was removed from the property.

“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 him just shouting at him, telling him to let them go but he just didn’t want to listen to us.”

“When we tried to walk in there to get them he pushed me and my mum out of the yard.”

“He just kept saying, ‘I’m waiting for the police … I’m waiting for the police’.”

On Friday, magistrate Deen Potter found Mr Radelic guilty of assaulting two of the three children, who had been restrained for 37 minutes before police arrived.

A third charge was dropped, as one child managed to free themselves and leave earlier.

The key legal question revolved around whether Mr Radelic’s use of force was “reasonably necessary”.

Magistrate Potter ruled that it was not and said that the children’s distress should have been a clear sign that Mr Radelic’s actions had crossed a line.

“While he was on the telephone, he described the children as being scared and crying,” the magistrate said. “At some point, it must have become blatantly clear that the continued application of force was unreasonable.”

The court acknowledged that Radelic, who was described as a “towering figure”, had experienced prior break-ins and believed the children were trespassing and damaging his property.

However, Magistrate Potter said that this did not justify the extended restraint of the young children, particularly given their visible distress.

Mr Radelic was handed a $2,000 fine, suspended for 12 months, along with a spent conviction.

His lawyer Seamus Rafferty argued that his client had been a “victim of crime” following multiple previous break-ins, though there was no suggestion that the children involved in the pool incident were responsible for those.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Mícheál Gregg acknowledged that Mr Radelic may have been within his rights to make a citizen’s arrest, but said the use of cable ties on compliant young children was “dehumanising” and unnecessary.

“He had other options available to him,” Sergeant Gregg said, describing the restraint as an action that “catapults it into the unreasonable.”

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