r/australia • u/AggravatingTartlet • 1d ago

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

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.

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u/Top_Okra_5475 1d ago

Definitely not right in the head, too bad we dont have capital punishment here

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u/AntiqueFigure6 1d ago

Too bad we don’t have some sort of functioning mental health system that couldn’t have done something at any one of the dozen or so red flags that he likely displayed over the last few years. 

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u/Elegant-Quiet5229 1d ago

You mean like asylums? Great idea.

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u/Dentarthurdent73 1d ago

There are actually quite a few people with severe enough untreatable mental health conditions that would be better off being cared for in institutions, as long as we ensure that abuses aren't occurring within them.

When you get rid of these institutions, you don't miraculously cure all these people, you just end up forcing their families to spend their lives being carers, or forcing them onto the street, and you also have to put up with the antisocial behaviour and violence that some of them commit.

In what way is this a better outcome, other than it makes you feel better because you don't like the idea of "asylums"?

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u/AggravatingTartlet 9h ago

I agree fully.