Police to be charged over abductions

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE -- Six police officers here face charges of deprivation of liberty after they admitted dumping three Aboriginal children at Pinkenba, on the city's outskirts, as “punishment”, to allow the boys to “reflect on their misdemeanours.”

The police may also face assault charges over the incident, in which the boys, aged 12, 13 and 14, were picked up in the Fortitude Valley Mall at 4am on May 10 and dumped in swampland.

The boys said they were forced to remove their shoes, told there were piranha fish in the swampland which would eat them, and threatened with having their fingers cut off.

The Aboriginal Legal Service officially complained to the Criminal Justice Commission, which will now press charges, it was announced on October 17.

ALS spokesperson Sam Watson said that 17 similar incidents since 1976 were revealed when other Aborigines came forward following the Pinkenba events. He said these cases showed there had been a long campaign by police against Aborigines.

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