A man was caught on CCTV running away after a baby was doused with hot coffee in a Brisbane park. Video / Queensland Police Service
The mother of a baby boy hospitalised after hot coffee was poured on him by a stranger has described the experience as “torture”.
The 9-month-old had surgery after suffering burns to his face and chest following what police described as a “cowardly” and random attack in a Brisbane park.
Meanwhile, police released new images of a man they wish to speak to in relation to the alleged assault.
They said the man was 30-40 years old, of an average build and with tanned skin. He was wearing a black hat, glasses, a checkered button-up shirt and shorts.
Yesterday, police appealed for help to identify the attacker, releasing footage of a man running away from the park after the “terrifying” incident.
“I wish he poured the hot coffee all over me and not my boy.”
A woman organising a GoFundMe page for the baby said she was the friend who was with the mother during the alleged attack.
“My friend and I were sitting in Hanlon Park ... with our two babies when a strange man came up behind her 9-month-old son and poured a thermos of boiling hot coffee over his little body and then fled!” she wrote.
“This was a callous, random attack on my friend’s baby. He does not deserve this pain and suffering.”
Police are appealing for help to identify a man who poured coffee on a baby in a random park attack. Photo / Queensland Police
The boy remains in a stable condition in a Brisbane hospital.
“It’s torture. I am supposed to be his protector and I couldn’t protect him,” the mother told Nine Network on Wednesday night.
“I’m just having flashbacks all the time about what happened.”
The boy's parents have been left devastated by the attack. (9News)
The mother said a nurse who lived nearby heard the baby’s screams and ran over to help, taking them to her apartment to shower the boy before an ambulance arrived soon afterwards.
She said her friend ran after the alleged attacker but he got away.
Police described it as a deliberate and unprovoked attack.
“It is callous and cowardly,” Detective Inspector Paul Dalton told reporters on Wednesday.
“Going to a park on a beautiful winter’s day in Brisbane, enjoying your time ... to be attacked like this and approached like this, it must be terrifying.
“In 35 years of being a police officer I’ve never come across a job where a child this young in these circumstances has been attacked.”
Police on Wednesday released CCTV footage of a man running from the park and down the street.
They said finding the man was critical to their investigation.
