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A young mother, picnicking with friends in a Brisbane park, is now praying for the recovery of her nine-month-old baby son from a random act of violence so pointless, so inexplicable, that it’s made headlines in Australia and around the world.
A fortnight ago, out of nowhere, a stranger tipped a Thermos flask of scalding coffee over the head of the infant, a boy known publicly only as Luka. Despite quick first aid, including an off-duty nurse dousing the boy’s burns with cold water, Luka suffered major burns to his chin, neck, chest and back. He has already undergone multiple surgeries, and faces still more operations and skin grafts. Even then, the poor boy will bear the physical scars of the attack for the rest of his life, let alone any psychological damage. His young parents have been left stunned and traumatized.
The police remain baffled by the random attack and what motive the man had
The alleged assailant was caught on camera dashing from the scene. It took several days, however, for police to track him down. In that time, the suspect managed to flee to New South Wales. He then flew out of Australia from Sydney airport, a day before the authorities succeeded in identifying him.
“I was in the investigation center when we put a name to the face, and it was a very happy room, only for us to do a check in fifteen minutes and find out we lost him,” the policeman leading the investigation, Detective Inspector Paul Dalton, said. His disappointment and frustration was palpable. That the suspect apparently was able to anticipate investigators, and stole a jump on them, added insult to injury.
To protect their investigation, police have not yet disclosed who the man is or where he has gone. They remain baffled by the random attack and what motive he may have had. Dalton did reveal, however, that the alleged assailant is an itinerant worker with no criminal record, who has been lawfully coming in and out of Australia for some years.
“I’m continually scratching my head. We can’t find a motive,” Dalton said. “A rational, normal person, you would think, wouldn’t do something like that. But that’s not always the case.”
The family itself is struggling to comes to terms with what happened. The baby’s parents said they were “devastated” to hear the suspect had fled, yet were relieved he had left the country. “It sounds like they were very, very close in catching him, and this obviously means that we’re going to have to wait who knows how long to get justice for our son,” Luka’s mother told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
But the ugly trauma the man inflicted on an innocent family remains. “I had no idea where this person was, I didn’t want to leave this hospital because it became our safe space,” the mother told the ABC.
Returning home I had panic attacks, and still continue to do so. I do feel relief that he’s not in this country, in some sense, but I will always have fear and anxiety being out in public with my son. It’s affected my mental health for the rest of my life.
Fortunately, the prognosis for Luka is positive. He is responding to treatment, and his mother says he is more like his “old self.” But that he, and his parents, were attacked while enjoying a picnic in a suburban park, is unthinkably sad and has moved Australians. More than 140,000 Australian dollars ($94,000) has so far been raised in an online appeal, which will assist the family with the long, slow process of treatment and recovery.
It takes a village to raise a child, and this awful story stabs at the emotions of not just parents, but anyone with a sense of decency. It is distressing to learn of children who are beaten, maimed and killed in acts of family violence, especially when child protection services have failed to keep a child from harm. But acts like this, out of the blue and utterly random, are all the more distressing because there’s no rational explanation for them, and no known motive.
Little Luka is blessed to have such loving parents, and to have received the immediate care and assistance of complete strangers after another complete stranger attacked him. His story has touched so many because it’s hard not to think “what if that had been my child?” It’s a powerful warning that even the best of parents cannot ever fully guarantee their child’s safety. But it also is a reminder to all of us to relish every moment with our children, embrace them and cherish them, and tell them how much and unconditionally we love them because we, and they, never know what is around the corner.
This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.
