A man who cable-tied the hands of three Aboriginal children in Broome has been found guilty of two counts of aggravated common assault.
Images of Matej Radelic, 46, restraining the crying children, two six-year-olds and a seven-year-old, made international headlines in March.
He pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated common assault but on Friday Magistrate Deen Potter found Radelic guilty of two of the charges.
He was acquitted of the third charge, as one of the children manage to break free and was therefore restrained for a shorter period of time.
He used the cable ties to forcibly restrain the young children after finding them swimming in his pool at a property in Cable Beach.
Prosecutors argued Radelic's actions were dehumanising and unreasonable in the circumstances.
His lawyers claimed Radelic had made a "lawful" citizen's arrest.
During the one-day trial in September the court played Radelic's call to emergency services, in which he can be heard telling the operator the tied-up children were uninjured, but "scared and crying".
"Yeah, no wonder," she replied.
His lawyer Seamus Rafferty clamed Mr Radelic was a "victim of crime", as his home had been broken into four times in the months before the incident, though he did not suggest these children were involved.
In bodycam footage released by the court, Mr Radelic can be seen speaking with police officers when they arrived on the scene.
"Every time this happens, there's no consequences for anyone," he tells police.
"Are they going to pay for it?
Are they going to take their Centrelink payments to pay for it?"
Mr Rafferty conceded cable tying the children's wrists was "not a good look" but said it was legal.
"This case is not about optics, not about emotion, race or vigilantism," he said.
He pointed to the responding police officer's notes, which had described the incident as a lawful citizen's arrest.
However, police prosecutor Mícheál Gregg argued the response was disproportionate as the children had complied when asked to get out of the pool and sit down.
"The circumstances simply weren't there to justify any use of force," he said.
A key point in the magistrate's decision was whether Radelic's use of force was "reasonably necessary" in the circumstances.
He deemed it was not given the length of time – 37 minutes – two of the children were restrained for before police arrived.
Magistrate Potter described Radelic as a "towering figure" and said the children's distress was clear.
"While he was on the telephone he described the children as being scared and crying," the ABC reported the magistrate said.
"Their distress should have been an indication.
"Therefore at some point, [it must have] become blatantly clear that the continued application of force must have become unreasonable.
There's an inescapable fact that the children were very and clearly distressed by their captivity.
The magistrate acknowledged Radelic had experienced previous break ins on his property, and that he was responding to what he perceived as trespass and criminal damage leading him to conduct a citizen's arrest.
Radelic received a $2000 fine, which was suspended for a 12-month period, and a spent conviction.
