The parents of a baby who has undergone four surgeries and may need a skin graft after a man poured hot coffee on the baby in a random attack in Australia have revealed that their badly scalded child is to undergo further surgery on Friday and have now spoken of their devastation after learning their son’s attacker has run away.
The nine-month-old boy was injured on August 27 while having a picnic with his mother at a Brisbane park.
The man allegedly came up to the boy and poured a Thermos of hot coffee on the child, burning his face and chest.
He travelled by car to New South Wales, on August 28 before flying out of Sydney Airport on August 31, police said. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The boy suffered serious burns, and the injuries to his neck and chest were likely to scar. The family expects the nine-month-old may need a skin graft and has undergone four surgeries.
The baby’s parents have spoken of their devastation.
“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,” the mother told the ABC after the press conference.
“It’s a bit heartbreaking.”
The parents, who have asked to remain anonymous, said they have been living in fear since the attack, with the mother saying she will continue to live with anxiety while in public with her son.
“It’s affected my mental health for the rest of my life,” she said.
The mother said she was feeling “immense sadness” for her son and the pain he endured.
Shortly after the news the man had fled the country, the mother took to Instagram to say the 33-year-old foreign national “knew exactly what he was doing” when he chose two vulnerable people at a park to attack.
“As a result of the attack, fear will continue to surround me daily … Months of recovery will continue for my son,” the mother wrote.
“Constant questions eating away at me, Why? Why him? Why not me? Why an innocent defenceless baby.”
She said the attack had changed her family’s lives and destroyed her mental health “for years to come”.
“It has ripped this part of motherhood – a happy joyful time – from beneath me,” she said.
“Within a matter of days of the attack, he had already fled the country and actively avoided police tactics to track him down,” she wrote.
“I’ve lived in constant fear for two weeks that he might attack us again. I had no idea what this man was capable of, the anxiety has been extreme.”
“We now have to wait weeks, months or even years until justice is served for our boy,” she said.
In an additional post to social media, the mother questioned how the alleged attacker could live with himself.
“This gutless coward gets to live a normal life in another country right now whilst we go through the trauma,” she said.
“How is this even real?”
Brisbane Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said the investigation was one of the most “complex and frustrating” he had been involved in.
He said the accused was “aware of police methodologies” and was “conducting counter-surveillance activities” that made it more complex.
“It wasn’t until September 1 that we were able to put a name to the face in the CCTV,” Inspector Dalton said.
He said the foreign national had been travelling in and out of Australia since 2019 on both working and holiday visas, with addresses in NSW and Victoria.
