By Brendan Rees
A teenager was arrested outside his Cranbourne North home on Friday 24 November after allegedly sending threatening social media posts to a metropolitan TV network.
Local police and heavily armed members of the Critical Incident Response Team swooped on the teen’s house in Fairway Boulevard about 4.30pm.
Police confirmed a 17 year-old boy was arrested “without incident” and there were no injuries to either himself or police.
Channel Seven reported the television network’s social media site received a series of social media messages, detailing terror threats about 12.30pm last Friday.
Casey Crime investigation Unit detectives have charged the boy with public nuisance, making false reports to police and using telecommunication device to menace.
Sergeant Tony Henry said it remained unclear who sent the messages, and inquiries would be conducted to confirm who was involved in the incident.
Asked if the social media posts were terrorism-related, he said, “Sort of, but the problem is it’s a kid, so we don’t want to delve too deep. At this stage, there’s a few allegations of phone hacking and stuff like that, so it may not be him.”
Sgt Henry said the threatening messages were sent to Channel Seven network and other media outlets.
Casey Crime Investigation Unit is investigating the incident.
The boy was bailed to appear at a children’s court at a later date.
