Aussie police find locked-up boy in drug raid

CANBERRA: Australian police voiced shock yesterday after discovering an eight-year-old boy locked up in a shed with only a mattress and a bucket at an elaborate underground drug-growing compound.

The boy and three other children – all aged between one and nine – were found during a raid on a remote property at Elands, some 300km north of Sydney, after police moved in on suspicions that cannabis plants were being grown there.

“Police will allege one of the children was locked in a room for long periods of time over the past few weeks,” police said.

The Newcastle Herald said the boy, who appeared to be malnourished, was found in a 2sq m area at the back of a tin work shed, the door locked from the outside and with only a single mattress and a bucket inside to use as a toilet.

The child reportedly told police he had been kept there for more than three weeks, enduring storms and high temperatures and only allowed outside to help with household chores.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter McKenna told ABC that it was a “shocking” case.

“We’re very thankful we got there when we did and that those children are now having the proper care that they need,” he said. – AFP

This handout photograph released by police shows an outdoor deck which retracts along metal rails to reveal a hidden staircase which leads to a bunker made of welded shipping containers, allegedly used as a large cannabis growing room, in Elands.