It’s not every day your baby son takes his first steps. Little Luka was only nine and a half months old when he tottered across the lounge, beaming with pride at his new skill. Having captured the precious moment on video, his mum Emma Turner* couldn’t wait to show her friend at a picnic in the park that afternoon.
For Emma, not only did the milestone demonstrate Luka’s determination – after all, he was very young to be walking – it made her full of anticipation about all the new things they could do together now he was up and about.
‘I was in a really good mood because Luka was well after being unwell for two weeks,’ Emma, 33, tells me. ‘He was back to his cheeky and curious self and I was excited to show my friends he was walking.’
Emma met with her friend Zara and her son, also nine months, at Hanlon Park in Brisbane. Together they laid out their picnic rugs with some toys so the boys could play in the sunshine.
But just five minutes later, their lives would change forever. A man came up behind Luka, who was busy playing with a toy car, and tipped a thermos flask of hot coffee all over him. A staggering act of cruelty that horrified the world.
‘It was such a shock I couldn’t quite believe what had happened,’ recalls Emma, tears pooling in her eyes. ‘Before I could do anything, the man looked at us and ran.’
Luka started screaming, a piercing wail that even now makes his mother shudder at the memory.
‘As I went to comfort him, I could see it was a hot liquid and that’s when I smelt the coffee,’ she says. ‘His skin was red and starting to peel off. He was screaming but sitting still in shock. I started screaming too. Zara had started to chase the man but when she heard us both, she ran back.
The parents of baby Luka, who was scalded by hot coffee in a random attack in a Brisbane park, have spoken to Daily Mail Australia about their ordeal. Luka is pictured with his parents above
‘I was thinking, “Oh God, he’s going to be scarred for life!’ Luka, left, photographed in September with his mother Emma, pictured right
‘We were tipping water from our bottles over Luka and another mum who’d been in the playground with her kids ran over to share her water. I called emergency services, but I was cradling Luka and so panicked and in shock that I couldn’t speak and a guy walking past came over and asked if he could help.’
Hearing the screams, a nurse living in a nearby apartment rushed to the park and took them back to hers where they got Luka into the shower. A distraught Emma held her screaming son under the running water and watched the skin on his face, neck, chest and arms start to peel.
‘I was thinking, “Oh God, he’s going to be scarred for life!”‘ she recalls. ‘Then, “Who would do this to a child and why?”‘
Two months on, these questions remain unanswered. Despite clear CCTV imagery, the attacker has still not been caught. He is now at the centre of an international manhunt, having fled Australia four days after the attack.
Detective Inspector Paul Dalton described the attack as one of the most ‘cowardly’ and ‘disgusting’ he had witnessed in his career. He said the suspect was ‘aware of police methodologies’ and was ‘conducting counter surveillance activities’ deliberately designed to confuse police as to his identity in the hours after the attack.
Despite clear CCTV imagery of the Chinese culprit, he is now at the centre of an international manhunt, having fled Australia four days after the attack
Meanwhile, the young family was left traumatised.
Luka underwent seven surgeries over three weeks and while doctors say he will heal better than an adult, they can’t predict the extent of his scarring as it will take eight months to develop. As her son celebrates his first birthday, Emma is struggling with mental scars, including flashbacks and panic attacks.
Meanwhile, she and her husband Chris remain furious that a stranger could change their lives forever and seemingly get away with it. It’s the sense that someone could attack the most innocent and vulnerable – a tiny baby – that has kept the story in the headlines, both here and overseas.
Chris, who was born in Northern Ireland to a Scottish dad and English mother and moved here when he was 11, points out: ‘This is Australia. Stuff like this doesn’t happen here. But apparently it does.’
For Emma, it is retraumatising to recount the day her defenceless son’s life changed forever, but she does so for a simple reason: ‘I failed that day because I couldn’t protect my son and that’s why it’s so it’s important that I’m an advocate to get justice for him now.’
Little Luka underwent seven surgeries over three weeks. Doctors can’t predict the extent of his scarring as it will take eight months to develop
With the man still on the run, Luka’s mother is too scared to use her real name or show her own face – but she’s speaking out because she wants you to see the attacker. As she rationalises, someone, somewhere must know where he is.
Debate may have erupted over whether police let political correctness cloud their judgement when they chose not to publicise that the suspect was of Asian appearance, and is now reported to be in China – facts that might have helped identify him sooner. But what’s imperative to the young couple is that he is caught.
‘I didn’t have control over Luka’s burns and how they are going to heal,’ says Emma. ‘I didn’t have control over this man, but what I can do is ensure that the world knows about this story and that will encourage police in whatever country he’s in to realise they don’t want this man roaming the streets.’
Two months have passed since the August 27 attack. As the couple continue to regularly attend hospital with Luka, they not only want justice for their son, but for the unnamed 33-year-old man to be off the streets so he can’t hurt other children.
Luka’s parents not only want justice for their son, but for the unnamed 33-year-old man (seen here in CCTV vision) to be off the streets so he can’t hurt other children
‘It just doesn’t make sense and I’m always asking myself, “Why didn’t he throw the coffee on me so that Luka didn’t have to suffer?”‘ says Emma. ‘I’d do anything to take that pain away from my son. He came up behind me so it would have been easy, but he chose the most vulnerable.’
Emma and Chris, who met three years ago but only became a couple after they’d known each other a year, always planned to have children but pregnancy came a little earlier than expected. Not that it mattered, because as soon as they saw their adorable son they couldn’t believe their good fortune.
Chris, 27, who was with his daughter, Elsa, four, from a previous relationship at the time of the attack, wishes he had been there to protect his son and partner. He knew instantly something bad had happened when he saw he’d had five missed calls from Emma.
When he finally spoke to her, paramedics were in the process of administering the heavy-duty painkiller fentanyl to their shocked son. At first he couldn’t make sense of what had happened: ‘I asked her, “What do you mean someone has poured coffee on Luka?” I was like, “What, on purpose or by accident?”‘
The former soldier dashed to Queensland Children’s Hospital where he found his injured son in the resuscitation bay and became terrified they might lose him.
‘I was saying to the doctor, “Is he going to be okay?” because his temperature was down to 30 degrees. He was really cold and in shock. I didn’t know what damage that could cause a nine month old.’
With burns down the left side of his head, face, neck and chest, and splatters to his arms and legs, 20 per cent of his body has been burned with ten per cent full thickness, previously referred to as ‘third-degree’ burns.
Luka had half his head shaved to facilitate treatment of the burns and was quickly wrapped in clingfilm. That evening he underwent the first of seven surgeries under anaesthetic to debride the skin of dead tissue.
During the first days in hospital, Chris and Emma were constantly in tears as they watched their little boy struggle with pain and discomfort. They worried about the scarring and whether he might regress. Doctors could give no guarantees.
‘Initially I was distressed by how much he was suffering,’ says Emma, ‘but then I started to worry about what we would tell him when he grows up, because he won’t remember any of it.’
While skin grafts were initially considered for areas where he’d suffered full-thickness burns, doctors were eventually able to use Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM), an artificial skin substitute which is incorporated into tissue and helps to repair deep wounds. Thick bandages were then applied to his body and entire face with small gaps so he could see and breathe.
Emma explains, ‘He had to undergo surgery every four days but after the seventh surgery he was able to have his dressings changed while awake without anaesthetic because his skin was no longer so raw.
During the first days in hospital, Chris and Emma were constantly in tears as they watched their little boy struggle with pain and discomfort
‘He’s healing really well and we’ve been told that because he is a baby, his skin has healed far better than if he’d been an adult.’
Slowly but surely, their easygoing blue-eyed boy has begun to re-emerge. ‘He’s normally such a cheeky, happy boy,’ says Emma, ‘so seeing him smiling through his bandages and watching his personality start to come out again, helped us see that he was okay. It was such a relief.’
After two weeks in hospital, Luka was able to go home where he has loved playing with his toys and wearing a little policeman’s shirt gifted to him by detectives. However, having always loved his bath or shower, he initially screamed when having water poured over his head – heartbreaking confirmation that it had triggered a memory of the attack.
Emma, a social worker, continues to struggle. Having suffered post-natal anxiety after issues with the epidural during labour had left her unable to care for her son in his first few weeks of life, she was finally getting back to her old self when the attack happened.
‘I’m on edge all the time since the attack. I’m definitely more snappy with everyone. I’m not sleeping well, I’m constantly waking in the night and checking the monitor to make sure Luka is OK – any tiny noise I panic,’ she says, pointing out that her friend Zara is also suffering from flashbacks and anxiety.
When she learned the attacker had left the country, she had mixed feelings. ‘I felt angry and upset that we might have to wait a long time to get justice – if we get it at all. But I felt some relief that he wasn’t going to hurt us anymore because he wasn’t in the country. I had, and still have, massive anxiety. I didn’t want to leave the hospital even to go home because I was afraid he was going to come and get us. I didn’t know who this person was and, to me, he was capable of anything if he could do what he did.’
Chris is certain that the police will track him down: ‘The world does not like people who hurt children and I believe he’ll get what’s coming to him, whether it’s by our law enforcement putting him in jail here or whether his own country puts him in jail.’
Emma, meanwhile, struggles to see her son’s attacker as human. ‘What do I call this person other than a monster?’ she says. ‘He doesn’t deserve to be called a man. No matter what has gone on in your life, why would you hurt an innocent baby?’
Having suffered a panic attack while visiting a shopping centre a few weeks after the incident, she says she worries her overprotectiveness will blight Luka’s childhood even more than his scars.
‘It’s hard to tell if he’ll have lifelong scars because they’ll develop in the coming months but now he is free of bandages and we are in the scar-management phase,’ she explains. ‘We apply silicone gel twice a day and moisturiser six times a day. But because of his enthusiastic personality it’s not going to stop him from achieving all the things he wants to achieve.
‘What I’m struggling with is letting him explore and hurt himself and have fun. I need to let him be a boy and to do all those things. I will be going to counselling until I can overcome that and be the best mum I can be.’
Meanwhile, the couple say they are both full of gratitude to their community. A fundraiser set up with the hope of raising $5,000 (£2,600) has now raised nearly $190,000 (£115,000) and, touchingly, an events company offered to help the couple celebrate Luka’s first birthday on October 30 by supplying soft play equipment.
Luka’s burns mean he won’t be able to play outside for at least a year so the family will spend some of the donated money creating a full play environment at home.
‘We were in such a dark place, and so shocked that a human could do this,’ says Chris. ‘But he is just one evil person. We’ve been shown that there are so many lovely and kind people in the world.’
*Names have been changed to protect their identities
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