A group of children have been made to clean up their destruction following the unlawful entry of a childcare centre in a remote community in the Barkly region.
Sometime during the evening of 26 January, six children aged 9 to 13 are alleged to have unlawfully entered and ransacked the premises, causing extensive damage and mess.
In cooperation with the parents/responsible guardians and police, the children returned to the centre and cleaned up their mess.
Barkly Superintendent Kylie Anderson said that community leadership and cooperation between residents, the families involved and police led to the children learning to take immediate responsibility for their actions.
"Unfortunately a significant amount of damage to a local and essential agency in this community was caused as a result of the behaviour of a few.
"Arising from a positive relationship between community members and their police officers, these children were given an opportunity to think about their behaviour and spent three hours cleaning and tidying up the results of their actions.
"Remote policing is often challenging, however the reward is working closely with community members and collectively addressing issues that impact on community safety together," said Supt Anderson.
