By RUDI MAXWELL

Police have charged a man with three counts of aggravated assault after a video went viral of three young Aboriginal children cable-tied at a home in Broome.

Western Australian police have charged a 45-year-old man with three counts of aggravated assault in relation to the incident.

WA Greens senator Dorinda Cox described the footage as disturbing and confronting.

“We can never be OK with watching children as young as six being humiliated, their tiny wrists being tied up and leaving them crying in the hot sun,” she said.

“Children are forever damaged by this type of behaviour.

“There is no justification for instilling terror into small children.”

Police were called to the Cable Beach home on Tuesday for a reported trespass incident.

When they arrived, officers found two children – a six-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy – had been forcibly restrained.

Police later identified and located a third child, an eight-year-old boy, who had managed to escape.

“As a mother, watching these children begging for their freedom and in fear was like watching a slow repeat of the historical racially-based abuse experienced by previous generations of First Nations people,” Senator Cox, a former police officer, said.

“We must confront such footage in the spirit of truth telling, however confronting this is … as a community, we all have a shared responsibility to rise above and challenge abuse, violence, racism and attitudes that encourage these behaviours towards children.

“We have sadly stood together before to stand against violence and abuse towards First Nation Children and I call upon WA police, all Australian politicians and the broader public to stand united and send out a clear message that we can never accept this happening to any child in our society, on our watch.”

The man from Broome was granted bail and will appear in court at a later date.