A baby boy who suffered serious burns to his body after a stranger poured a thermos of hot coffee has returned to the scene where the harrowing ordeal unfolded.
Little Luka was at a picnic with his mum and friends at Hanlon Park in Coorparoo in Brisbane on August 27 when an unknown man approached the group.
He poured coffee over Luka before fleeing the scene and is believed to have since left the country.
Luka was rushed to Queensland Children’s Hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries.
Four weeks on, he has since turned 10-months-old and received a junior police uniform from detectives investigating his case and working to get justice.
Following his recent release from hospital, Luka returned to the park with his parents and older sister on Thursday, where he happily played on the swings and slippery slide.
His parents have renewed calls for police to share more information with the public about their son’s suspected attacker, who understood to have fled Australia in the day following the incident.
‘We would just like a bit of assurance that we are on the right track, and (that the offender) is going to get caught,’ Luka’s father told Seven News.
Little Luka recently turned 10 months-old
Luka returned to the park on Thursday for the first time since the harrowing ordeal
‘How (do) they plan on bringing him back? And if they know where he is in that particular country, is that country working with us?’
After a difficult month, Luka and his family are settling into a new home.
He still has burns all over his body but his parent have been told they won’t scar.
‘He’s really strong and resilient and brave,’ his mother said.
His father added: ‘We can’t believe how well he’s doing. He’s so happy and he’s hitting all his milestones.’
Queensland Police remains tight-lipped about the case and what they know about the attacker’s potential whereabouts.
‘We need to balance our investigative strategies with the need for the community to know what’s going on,’ acting commissioner Shane Chelepy said.
Luka recently received a special gift from detectives investigating his case
The global manhunt continues for the man who poured hot coffee over little Luka
A specialist in international law at Australian National University, Professor Donald Rothwell recently warned that the suspect may be ‘difficult to locate’ after he fled the country within days of the incident.
Professor Rothwell warned that the case may never be resolved because the foreign national flew out of Sydney Airport the day before police identified him on August 31.
‘If someone doesn’t want to be found — and often they don’t want to be found because they’ve fled Australia, because they are a suspect or a fugitive in this type of matter — they can also be very difficult to locate,’ Professor Rothwell told the ABC.
He added that unless the man voluntarily hands himself in then, there could be nothing investigators can do to have him extradited back to Queensland.
Professor Rothwell added that numerous factors such as the man’s notoriety and his current location might become obstacles to the ‘legal and a political process that needs to be followed’.
The extradition process ‘could be challenging and lengthy’ for police, he added.
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