The Daily Telegraph March 12, 2010
THE second boy arrested for the brutal bashing of a wheelchair-bound tourist was on bail at the time of the attack and has a history of violence, a court heard.
The 15-year-old, from Merrylands West, appeared in Parramatta Court yesterday charged over the attack on disabled Canadian man Heath Proden...
The Department of Immigration is understood to be investigating revoking the boy's visa and sending him back to New Zealand as a result of Tuesday night's attack at Mt Druitt rail station.
The boy and his 16-year-old co-accused allegedly punched Mr Proden in the face, pulled him from his wheelchair and then, while he was cornered in a lift, stomped on his head, kicked and repeatedly hit him with an iron rod and pulled parts off his chair.
The attack, which police said was one of the most "sickening" they'd ever come across, lasted about five minutes.
Mr Proden had been waiting at the station about 11pm after going out to watch mates in the Canadian band Doc Walker perform at the Rooty Hill RSL...
Mr Proden's mother Shellan said she was stunned by the brutality of the attack. "I just want him home," Mrs Proden said.
"I can't believe a human being would do that to someone else."
family/friend claims his 'boys' were provoked
Mother can't understand beating of son in wheelchair in Australia
The Canadian Press - Canada March 10, 2010
Canadian wheelchair user beaten in AustraliaShellan Proden couldn't bring herself to watch the grainy surveillance video of two young men who brutally attacked her son, forced him out of his wheelchair and pummelled him.
"I haven't watched that video and I don't think I will," Proden said Wednesday from her home in Winnipeg Beach ...
"I've been told ... that they'll have to go in and do some draining of the brain. But he's alert, he's talking and whatever," Proden said.
CBC News March 11, 2010
The incident "appears to be a random act" and police have not determined a motive, police spokeswoman Joanne Elliott told CBC News. She said she'd never heard of an assault like this one.
"And I know that very, very experienced police who have worked in Sydney's western suburbs for 20 years … were absolutely appalled by what happened."
But according to freelance reporter Tim Stackpool, many in the community — about an hour's drive west of Sydney's famed beaches — say this type of beating "was destined to happen."
"The crime rate there has been going up and up and up and up," Stackpool told CBC News. "The police have been doing their utmost to keep it under control, but this is a place in Sydney where perhaps there is not a lot for the youth of the streets to … do.
"It is a cheaper area to buy property in Sydney, and some young families and young couples are moving in there now. But of course, over many years, some undesirable elements have crept into that community and unfortunately, 11 o’clock at night on that railway station where the victim was is perhaps not the place to be."
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