Mick Hartley

The "kIller brat" who fed a zoo's collection of rare reptiles to the crocodile:

The boy made his way past Billygoat Hill, ignoring the groups of itinerant drinkers and drug addicts waking up after a night sleeping rough on the parched land beside one of Australia's most popular Outback zoos.

 

But instead of heading for school, the seven-year-old deftly jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Centre, before calmly going on a 30-minute killing spree, throwing live animals to a crocodile and using a rock to bludgeon several lizards to death.

 

Among the 13 dead reptiles was the zoo's beloved 20-year-old goanna, a monitor lizard, which the boy fed to "Terry", an 11ft long, 440lb saltwater crocodile.

Naturally, commentary is required from experts in child psychology so that we, the bemused public, can try to make some sense of all this.

The Centralian Advocate, an Alice Springs daily newspaper, ran the headline "Killer Brat" on its coverage of the story.

However, Phillip Hodson, a fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said it was wrong to vilify a child.

"Such a headline would be justified for a 21-year-old. But at only seven, this child is at the stage we describe as "before reason", he said. "Obviously, it is offensive when animals are gratuitously killed. But the world of childhood and children is severely distorted and we should be more tolerant because such a young child can't look at things subjectively.

This comment was made in a stage we describe as "before thinking". The world of counsellors and psychotherapists is severely distorted, and when they say "subjectively" they probably mean "objectively".

"Children can be quite cruel, which is why we have to bring them up. You only have to read Lord of the Flies to see how badly things can go."

Well absolutely. William Golding would be delighted that his novel has been so taken to heart.