man and his wife, who appears to be black or Aborigine, were attacked outside their home by youths who viciously beat them for the sake of beating them. The man pleaded with his attackers: “I help people like you.” Indeed. He works to turn Australia into a nonwhite country, and now he is “is trying to understand what may have motivated their actions.” I suggest he keep trying until he finds the answer.
Paul and his wife Ilse were watching Carols by Candlelight on television when they heard a bang outside their Noble Park home.
Ilse thought it might have been a car accident so Paul went outside to investigate.
Four youths were kicking around a rubbish bin. When he remonstrated with them, asking “would you do this at your house?”, things turned “volatile”.
Paul said three of the youths, who were of an African background, approached him. “I copped one in the eye,” he said. He was punched again in the eyes, and yelled to his wife to call the police.
Paul, 56, who works as a volunteer at a local asylum seeker organisation, told his attackers: “I help people like you.”
But he was kicked and punched in the head. His 68-year-old wife was also knocked to the ground.
“I thought I was at the end of my days when I felt the kick to my head as I was crawling down to her,” Paul said yesterday.
With her eyes still bruised, Ilse said yesterday: “They said to me ‘shut your mouth, shut your mouth’, and they hit my back and they kicked me.”
Ilse said a fourth youth, who was of an Asian background, helped her up and said “sorry lady”, but another one hit her again.
“They had no mercy, they were laughing,” she said.
One attacker told Paul, who suffered fractures under the eyes: “Don’t worry, you have proved you are a man.”
Paul believes his attackers may be from one of the communities he assists at the asylum seeker centre and is trying to understand what may have motivated their actions.
“I work at a place that helps people like this, and you see the trouble they come from and you see the young ones that are growing up and they have a different outlook on life and their future is in Australia,” Paul said.
“But when you see these other ones that are caught in the past, all I would like to say to them is, ‘This is Australia, you have an opportunity, make the most of it. Don’t ruin it for you family and your friends.’ “
He is eager to return to his volunteer work at the centre once he recovers from his injuries.
Police are appealing for witnesses. The three attackers of African appearance were about 175 to 180 centimetres tall, aged 17 to 18 with short black hair. The youth of Asian appearance was stocky, wearing a baseball cap.