Two men have been arrested and charged with assault after allegedly taking the law into their own hands when a group of aboriginal teens threw rocks at their Cairns home.
Police said they were called to the suburb of Mount Sheridan at about 9pm on September 22 after reports two men were allegedly assaulting two teenage girls, 14 and 16, and video taken by passers-by after the police had arrived shows officers appearing to arrest one of the girls.
The video was shared on social media, and one of the men was then doxxed by indigenous activists who claimed he was boasting about the alleged attack on Instagram. He was later fired from his job as a result of pressure put on his employer.
Noticer News understands the man claimed online that the girl was part of a larger group who had repeatedly targeted his home.
Queensland Police said in a statement earlier in the week that they were investigating alleged wilful damage and assault.
“Around 8.45pm, a group of offenders threw rocks at a Barnard Drive property, smashing a window before fleeing on foot. Around 9.10pm, police were called to reports of a disturbance on Foster Road. Upon arrival, police located several teenagers and adults involved in an altercation,” police said
“A 14-year-old girl was initially detained at the scene. Police identified the girl had sustained minor injuries from the disturbance and she was transported to Cairns Hospital.”
But detectives from the Cairns Child Protection and Investigation Unit have now arrested two men for alleged vigilante behaviour and charged them over the incident, The Cairns Post reported.
A 21-year-old man has been charged with one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm whilst armed and in company, and a 53-year-old man was charged with one count of assault occasioning bodily harm.
The men, both from Mount Sheridan, will face Cairns Magistrates Court on October 10.
“Investigations are ongoing into the wilful damage of the window,” police said.
The younger man’s boss originally defended him as a good worker and said they while he did not condone the behaviour what the man did in his personal time was his business, but later terminated his employment due to the social media backlash, The National Indigenous Times reported.
The alleged victim said earlier this week she suffered bruising and soreness to her head, but was cleared by doctors and is recovering.
Cairns has been struggling with an aboriginal crime crisis in recent years, with a woman gang-raped at knifepoint by home invaders in February and hospital staff warned not to leave work alone due to violent attacks on nurses earlier this year.
Header image: Left, right, the alleged incident (Facebook).
