A five-year-old boy has been gang raped by three other children on a remote Australian beach, police say.
The tot was injured so badly during the attack – carried out by youngsters aged between 10 and 13 – that he needed airlifting to hospital for emergency treatment afterwards.
The incident occurred in the isolated town of Napranum, a community of 1,000 mainly indigenous people some 500 miles from the nearest major city of Cairns.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll called the crime an "absolute tragedy".
She said: “Sadly, yes, we did investigate that. It's being dealt with, we're working with the community. It shouldn't happen and it's tragic."
She said that the trio of suspects had been removed from the town.
But the attack – which was only revealed on Friday despite happening on 1 July – has caused a major rift in the small community, which is so remote it is closer, as the crow flies, to Papau New Guinea than Cairns itself.
Sources suggest it has reopened long festering wounds caused by another similar offence committed 14 years ago.
In 2006 a 10-year-old girl was raped by nine boys and men aged between 13 and 25 in Aurukun, some 25 miles south of Napranum.
All of the attackers pleaded guilty to the assault – and numerous others sex offences – but they avoided jail after a judge decided the girl, who had learning difficulties, "probably agreed to have sex” with them.
Speaking about the new attack, a local source told the Australian newspaper: “There are big arguments about how this happened. It is creating big problems in the town.”
The three youngsters themselves are now being dealt with under the country’s Youth Justice Act, a police spokesperson said.
