My name is Anthony Laurence Gallon. In 2017, during a mid-morning flight from Australia to New Zealand on an Air New Zealand Airbus A320, I heard a small child crying desperately in a way that sounded like repeated pleas for “help.”
I wasn’t sure if I should get involved so I consulted my bible, finding verses that were speaking to me in that moment and they were reinforcing the duty to help. I stood up calmly to see why the child was crying like that, as I wasn’t able to see him. He was seated in the opposite row slightly ahead of me and his parents were both gazing off into the distance as though they couldn’t hear him, and it just seemed a bit odd. So I stood up and then I could see the mother pressing her forearm across his throat and the father gripping the child’s ankles tightly to pin his feet to the seat. The child was on his back in the seat between them, desperately reaching out to try and get free, and crying for any sort of help from anyone who could hear him. His face was red and bulging, I’ll never forget how wet his eyes were and how vivid the expression of fear and distress, it still haunts me to this day.
As soon as he saw me he stopped crying and pleaded with me in baby talk, clearly asking for help.
The father saw the child had spoken to me and said “what are you looking at? Go back to your seat”. Well, I was shocked, absolutely lost for words. The man was of some kind of mind that thought he was ok, all I could say is “but…” and he said it again: “you heard me! Sit back down”. I looked toward the air hostess, she was running up the gangway toward me, she said “is there a problem here sir?” And I answered “yes there is, will you bear witness to the way they are treating this child?”. She said “no sir, I won’t. Can you please go back to your seat?”. I replied ok and sat back down. She offered “if you like I can move you to a different seat, I think there’s one toward the back of the plane”. I said “yes please, I would like that. I am not comfortable sitting here with this happening next to me”. She said she would arrange this with the captain. She went to do that and I stood up to get video evidence of the parents who were continuing to hold the child by the throat and ankles, and his cries had changed noticeably to more of a despair. She came running back up the aisle and demanded that I delete the video, but I refused, saying I would be reporting this to the authorities on the ground and when I asked for her name because “I would be reporting her too”, she covered her name badge with her hand. I sat in my seat with the belt fastened waiting for a new seat. I looked at the man and asked him “is that your child sir, or is it an orphan?”. He paused for a moment, then both he and the mother released the child at once. The child immediately sat up, happy and quiet and began tapping on the IFE screen in front of him. A few minutes passed, I had begun reading the bible but was a bit distracted by my thoughts of the matter. I pressed the service call button and asked the flight attendant for the new seat. She replied that she was still arranging it. So a few more minutes passed, I again called for service and this time she led me to a free seat at the front of the plane. I was quite happy seated there for a while, listening to music in the IFE, then I thought I could hear the child screaming again, but this time I wasn’t sure. The sound of the aircraft was quite loud and I just thought it could have been happening again, so I stood up to go back to my seat. I knew that they had only released the child because of what I had said, so I thought it would be better for the child if I was there to keep an eye on him. When I turned to go back, I saw the drinks trolley blocking the aisle, only 2 seats ahead. The flight attendant told me to return to my seat and I explained that I wanted to return to the seat I had selected at check in because I was concerned about the child. She said no, that I have been reassigned to the front seat and I had to remain there. I then asked if she could assign a staff member to keep an eye on the child and she said “no I won’t do that either”. So I recognised that it could only be escalated. I asked “well, would you pass a note to the captain for me then?”. She said “yes sir I can do that but you have to sit down right away”. That was the only reasonable option I could think of, so I sat down. She then gave me the paper and pen to write to the captain, telling me that if I did not remain seated for the remainder of the flight then she would have to use the handcuffs. So I wrote to the captain, informing him of the torturous abuse aboard his aircraft and his responsibility to the safety of the passengers. I was satisfied that I had done all I could, that I couldn’t take any further action until we got to the ground so I remained seated until the airplane arrived. We arrived 25 minutes ahead of schedule and I was greeted by a Police Officer, Constable Damon Grant Himiona. I had expected this would be a constructive conversation to explain what I had seen on the aircraft and that he would apply lawful direction to the parents and crew. However, as I quickly found out, he had already been in talks with the crew, they had primed him with lies and he wasn’t interested in protecting the child from harmful behaviour. Instead, he started gloating about how he would have restrained his own child by the throat and ankles “depending what age he was”! He also received a statement from a passenger seated in front of the couple, that was full of vague accusations and was later dropped in court because the Police were not willing to make her stand.
The officer issued a $500 infringement notice for “failing to comply with crew instructions”, which I challenged because it simply wasn’t true. I feel that I had remained remarkably calm and cooperative in a difficult situation while attempting to help a child suffering abuse that the air hostess was supporting, and I had raised it to the captain without any arguments and without yielding, and I had left it at that to be dealt with on the ground. I had complied with all the flight attendant’s instructions except the unlawful demand of hers to delete evidence of the child being abused. Police later changed the charges when I challenged the fine in court, no longer bringing charges for an unpaid fine but instead bringing new charges of disorderly conduct. Of course I defended this in court, because my conduct had been impeccably compliant with an orderly approach to raise the matter to the captain while also respecting the authority and role of the flight attendant first. I had given her every possible opportunity to support the child’s wellbeing before escalating.
It was evidenced after the trial that the judge did not judge rightly and his ruling against me was later quashed on appeal to a higher jurisdiction.
I recorded the entire police interview (transcript available) because I wanted the truth on record and I am quite glad I did. I soon after saw some news reports had given wildly imaginative stories about the ordeal, even some going so far as to lie to the public, saying the mother “tried to console the child” and “had her hand resting on the child’s chest”! I really didn’t think much of it, assuming anyone might see that I was found innocent, that the system had worked as it should (in the judge’s opinion) and might even want to talk to me to find out what the matter was. But instead, just recently, in the past few months, I have found a certain tendency of people to not do that! … instead they have let their minds be lured away into a rage against an idea that, somehow, (I don’t know what their exact idea is because I was there and I saw what actually happened), but it has become quite apparent toward me a pattern: that what might be a normally nice person has been turned against me by reading the news reports – and they haven’t exactly come to discuss it with me, but instead they’ve gone and discussed it with others and altogether they have developed an undue anger toward me. I’ve got no idea why.
As I have said, I can’t really imagine what they would be so angry about because I was there and I saw what happened and I know that they should rather be commending me, because I stood up and I took action, all alone, resisting the threats of child abusers, to bring it to the attention of the authorities. If those people were properly informed, I expect they would instead be in their right mind and angry at the authorities for having not sought to protect the child – and for coming against me with lies and turning an innocent public against me for the good I have done!
So now, because I have become aware that people are getting the wrong idea from the news reports, and I believe everyone deserves to be properly informed before forming conclusions, it’s obvious now that I have to make this statement in public. It’s really sad that good people are discouraged from standing up for the vulnerable whenever there is abuse in their midst. This experience has been a real eye opener for me, to see how pervasive this is. The Police Officer asked me a question, saying “why do you think nobody else came forward to report it – only you did?”. It was only a few weeks later, in The Warehouse, while a child was being driven into a tantrum by her cruel mother, that a fellow bystander looked at me on the same level as me and said “we’re not allowed to get involved”. Talk about “evil triumphing when good men do nothing”. It starts to explain a lot, doesn’t it?
And it’s not just children either, but I have seen the same oppression and cruel treatment of elderly and mentally diminished persons in this country, and the same attitudes of authorities that encourage the abuse and discourage real community action.
I am open to constructive conversation with anyone who approaches me in good faith about this, or I am happy to just let it be a thing that has happened. The thing I can’t be happy about is anyone who believes I should just sit quietly and allow a child to be abused in front of me, and not engage with the child to support them in their distress and to find an outcome that brings about everyone’s peace. It is a pity that those who do not do the same will instead turn against me for doing it, but ultimately we each have our own decision to make in these moments. We each have to live with our conscience and the reality of our choices and it just so happens that I am realistically unable to turn a blind eye to those who are crying for help right in front of me.
Truth matters, and so does protecting the vulnerable. I acted according to my conscience and have no regret for that.
Anthony Gallon Hamilton, New Zealand (Posted 5 April 2026)