Little Mix perform at Spark Arena. Photo / Garry Brandon
Little Mix perform at Spark Arena. Photo / Garry Brandon
Concert-goers were stunned to see young children and teens being frisked by security staff at last night's Little Mix show.
A Herald reviewer was at the Little Mix concert when she saw children being patted down right next to their parents.
"It was so crowded. They were trying to get everyone through quickly so you didn't really notice," she said.
"It wasn't until I really looked back and thought, 'That's a really weird sight, to see people feeling [the children's] legs and stomach'."
Another parent told the Herald that while he saw others being frisked, his children, aged 11 and 13, were not. They did, however, have to undergo a full-body scan.
11-year-old Eva Pleciak is given a full body scan by security at Little Mix's concert. Photo / Supplied by Michael Pleciak
Michael Pleciak sent his wife Penny Lewis photos of their two daughters Nina (13) and Eva (11) Pleciak being subjected to the rigorous security check and said a member of security staff told them Little Mix had insisted on full-body security scans for everybody coming in.
Pleciak says: "They just scanned [our girls], but...you would think they would have more female security staff doing this, given the audience is overwhelmingly teenaged girls or women".
The parents say their girls "seemed to understand because of Ariana Grande" and the bombing at her Manchester concert earlier this year.
A fan struggles to walk after an explosion at Ariana Grande's Manchester Arena concert. Photo / Joel Goodman
However, Brendan Hines, general manager for Spark Arena, said that was definitely not the reason.
He told the Herald children being patted down "just shouldn't be happening, so if it did it was completely inadvertent".
"It's certainly not policy - it's actually quite the opposite. The policy is that kids don't get frisked," he said.
Hines said the friskings may have occurred when unbriefed security staff were pulled from other areas of the stadium to help clear a backlog at the front doors.
"The only thing we can work out ... was there were large crowds out the front, it was a cold night, we were really keen to get [the crowd] in as quickly as we could, so we did pull some security staff from other areas that may not have been briefed particularly well."
He said while they hadn't had any official complaints, they would look into the claims.
Spark Arena's official policy was that anyone under 16 shouldn't be searched.
The venue's policy prohibits alcohol, illegal substances, bottles, gang patches or colours, fireworks, laser lights, weapons of any kind, illegal substances, musical instruments, modes of personal transport eg skateboards, sporting equipment, tagging equipment, selfie sticks, commercially branded food and drinks, professional cameras and video cameras.
