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Images of a now-suspended mayor sitting on top of an Aboriginal child in a shocking “citizen’s arrest” have sparked calls for legal action against him.
Jeffrey McLaughlin, mayor of Barkly Regional Council in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, was filmed sitting on the back of a child after carrying out what he said was a citizen’s arrest on August 21.
McLaughlin said the boy had tried to break into his house.
A 61-year-old man who was with McLaughlin at the time allegedly threatened the boy and has been charged with assault.
“I will sit here as long as I have to,” Mr. McLaughlin is heard saying in the video.
Images of a now-suspended mayor sitting on top of a child in a shocking “citizen’s arrest” have sparked calls for legal action to be taken against him.
‘One of you is going to be killed. I told you the other day. You are very lucky to be with me. “We don’t want to live like this anymore.”
Meanwhile, the other man can be heard saying: “I’d love to stomp on your head.”
He then raises his leg as if to kick the child who shouts “go away.”
“Keep your damn head down or I’ll stomp on it,” the man says.
If it were up to me, I wouldn’t call the police. You’re lucky it didn’t hit you in the head.
The man then makes a fist with his hand before driving his boot into the boy’s head.
A 61-year-old man has been charged with assault over the incident.
After the images circulated, McLaughlin defended his actions.
“The force I used to detain the young man was entirely reasonable under the circumstances,” he wrote on Facebook.
‘I immediately called the NT Police and requested their presence at the scene. While the spontaneous comments and behavior of the other adult male in the footage can rightly be described as inappropriate, they are not mine and I did not encourage them.
‘As soon as the police arrived, I followed their instructions and NT Police arrested the young man.
‘My actions were neither illegal nor inconsistent with my position as Mayor of Barkly Regional Council. It is disappointing that this material was published for obviously political purposes.
“I will not be resigning from my position as mayor of Barkly Regional Council.”
The boy’s parents have since signed a letter that Barkly councilor Elliot McAdam sent to the Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA).
NAAJA provides legal services to Aboriginal people in the NT.
“As a person in high office, you should have stopped this attack almost immediately, but you did not,” the letter says. ABC reported.
McLaughlin (pictured with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese) has resisted calls to resign.
‘Any reasonable person wouldn’t have sat on my son’s back… for a long time.
“Mr. McLaughlin did not try to stop (the other man) from stomping on my son’s head.”
Previously, the mayor had told the publication that he knew the boy’s family very well, had spoken with them and “did restorative justice.”
The parents have denied it.
McLaughlin and all members of Barkly Regional Council were suspended in October over “fiscal management concerns.”
It is understood Mr McLaughlin’s suspension is unrelated to the citizen’s arrest.