A man wanted for allegedly throwing scalding coffee at a baby in an unprovoked attack in a park in the northern Australian state of Queensland is now the subject of an international manhunt.
Queensland Police Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said on Monday officers were working with international partners to locate the man, identified as a 33-year-old foreign national, who is believed to have fled the country four days after the alleged attack.
A nine-month-old boy, known only as Luka, suffered severe burns to his face, arms and legs when the man allegedly threw the scalding drink over him as he sat with his mother on the grass at Hanlon Park in Brisbane on August 27.
Closed-circuit television video released by police shows the man running from the scene, wearing a blue plaid shirt, a black hat and glasses.
Dalton said initial investigations were delayed by false information about the man’s name and the suspect’s own surveillance of the police operation.
“It quickly became apparent to us that this individual was aware of police methods and was certainly conducting counter-surveillance activities, which made the investigation quite complex,” Dalton told reporters.
After the attack, the man took a taxi to Brisbane city centre, then drove across the state border to New South Wales before flying out of Sydney airport on August 31.
“It wasn’t until September 1 that we were able to put a name to the face in the surveillance video,” said Dalton, who declined to name the man or his destination for fear of hampering the investigation.
Dalton said police identified the man shortly after he fled, telling reporters: “I was in the investigation centre when we put a name to the face, and it was a very happy room, only for us to check 15 minutes later and find we had lost him.”
Dalton described the man as an “itinerant worker” who had come and gone from Australia on various visas since 2019 and last entered the country in January 2022.
Police were unable to determine the man’s motive.
“I’m constantly scratching my head. We can’t seem to find a motive,” Dalton said. “You would think a rational, normal person wouldn’t do something like that. But that’s not always the case.”
The boy’s mother, whose identity could not be revealed for legal reasons, told local media at the time that “everything happened very quickly and chaotically.”
“I didn’t really understand what happened at that point, but I started screaming for help and yelling that it was hot and that my son was burned,” the mother said.
Onlookers rushed with water to douse the child before he was taken to hospital, where he has since reportedly undergone multiple surgeries for severe burns to his chin, neck, chest and back.
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