Search expands for man who allegedly poured boiling coffee on baby

() – A man wanted for allegedly pouring boiling coffee on 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 find the man, identified as a 33-year-old foreign national, who is known to have fled the country four days after the alleged attack. .

A nine-month-old boy, known simply as Luka, suffered severe burns to his face, arms and legs when the man allegedly threw the boiling drink at him while he sat with his mother on the grass at Hanlon Park in Brisbane on August 27. .

CCTV video released by police shows the man fleeing the scene, wearing a blue checkered shirt, black hat and glasses.

Dalton said early investigations were delayed due to false information about the man’s name and the suspect’s own surveillance of the police operation.

“It soon became clear to us that this person knew police methodologies and was surely conducting counter-surveillance activities, which made the investigation quite complex,” Dalton told reporters.

After the attack, the man took a taxi to Brisbane city center and then drove by car across the state border into 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 that appears on the security cameras,” said Dalton, who declined to identify the man or his fate for fear of hampering the investigation.

Dalton said police had identified the man shortly after he fled, telling reporters: “He was at the investigation center when we put a name on his face, and it was a very happy room, just for us to do a check.” in 15 minutes and we found out we lost it.”

Dalton described the man as an “itinerant worker” who had come and gone from Australia on various visas since 2019 and had last entered the country in January 2022.

Police have not been able to determine the man’s motive.

“I can’t stop thinking about it. “We can’t find a motive,” Dalton said. “You would think that a normal, rational person wouldn’t do something like that. But that’s not always the case.”

The boy’s mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told local media at the time that “everything was very fast and chaotic.”

“At that moment I didn’t really understand what had happened, but I started screaming for help and shouting that it was hot and that my son had been burned,” said the mother.

Onlookers ran with water to douse the boy before taking him to hospital, where he has reportedly since undergone multiple surgeries for severe burns to his chin, neck, chest and back.

At the time, police released CCTV footage of the man and asked people who recognized him to come forward.

“The images are quite clear. “I’m sure if you look at the footage and meet that person, you’ll know who it is,” Dalton told the media on August 28.

The investigation took police to New South Wales and Victoria, where the man had lived at several addresses on various working and holiday visas.

Police said they had spoken to colleagues about his movements.