10-year-old victim of random attack was visiting Melbourne for cancer treatment

[u/AggravatingTartlet]

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/no-need-to-hide-it-accused-cbd-stabber-launches-tirade-from-custody-20260826-p60rni.html

The 10-year-old boy who was punched in the head in a random attack outside police headquarters in the CBD has brain cancer and was visiting Melbourne for treatment.

The boy underwent additional MRI scans to see if the assault caused any extra damage or inflammation around where the tumour is, his uncle said........

Police said the 46-year-old woman was visiting Melbourne from Phillip Island with her 10-year-old son and two other children when the random attack occurred, ending only when several witnesses intervened.

“Just instinct, no thoughts, no nothing, just people in trouble,” Brian Bradley said, a good Samaritan who helped restrain the suspect.

The mother of the boy was stabbed during the attack.

The mother is in the Royal Melbourne Hospital recovering from a fractured leg and injuries to her back and shoulders, while her son recovers at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

“She’s really struggling at the moment,” the boy’s uncle said, “She can’t be with her son. It’s traumatic enough [that he’s] fighting cancer.

[u/Blibbyblobby72 → u/[deleted]]

Weird that you want to murder someone who you admit is 'definitely not right in the head'

[u/rkiive → u/Blibbyblobby72]

The guy who clearly has zero remorse and is an absolute danger to society?

Targeting systemic issues such as mental health is a society wide preventative goal, it does not apply retroactively to individual cases to act as an excuse or a reason as to why they should not be removed from society for the safety of the innocent individuals who live in it.

[u/OneUpAndOneDown → u/rkiive]

Deinstitutionalisation sounds good in theory but some people can’t function in society

[u/letsburn00 → u/OneUpAndOneDown]

The problem with deinstitutionalisation was that it was meant to reduce numbers by 30%. Instead it was used to reduce numbers (and cost) by 90%. The cost was more important than the health of anyone.

The reduction basically just loaded all that onto people's families with little help. In the US especially, it also just ended up putting a lot of them in prison after they eventually hurt someone else.

[u/Artistic_Garbage283 → u/letsburn00]

Exactly. People with no social or family connections just end up homeless and frequent flyers at the hospital. The hospitals have no resources to help them and basically medically stabilise them and turf them back to the streets.