A ROSEBUD man who allegedly stabbed a female paramedic in front of her children on Friday 13 July, was charged last Wednesday night with intentionally and recklessly causing serious injury and several other assault and criminal damage charges.
The paramedic, 46, was loading her two children into her car after picking up take-away from a shop in Nepean Highway, Rosebud, when the man, 47, allegedly grabbed her from behind and slashed her across the chest with a box cutter in a random attack. He then rode away on a bicycle.
The woman was taken to Frankston Hospital where she received a “large number of stitches” to treat a 15 centimetre gash on her chest.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Tony Walker said the paramedic’s children aged four and six witnessed the “absolutely abhorrent” attack from the back seat of the car.
Still in shock the next day, the woman said on radio she thought she may have treated the man in her role as a paramedic. While not drawing a link to her job and the recent spate of attacks on emergency services workers, she said she would not wear her uniform when driving home again in case it had “triggered” the attack.
Detective Senior Constable Alex Montgomery, of Mornington Peninsula CIU, said the man had been charged at Dandenong police station and remanded to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, Thursday 19 July. He was then further remanded to appear at a committal hearing at the same court on Thursday 11 October to face additional charges, including criminal damage, theft, assault, theft of a motor car and weapons offences.
Detective Montgomery said following the alleged assault on the paramedic the man allegedly used a small axe to smash the windows of a car in Ninth Avenue, Rosebud; used the axe to smash the window of a take-away food store in Pt Nepean Road while the owners cowered inside and pleaded with him that they were closed; and then stole a car from outside the Rosebud Hotel before crashing it into a tree opposite.
The man then allegedly threatened those trying to help him out of the car with a hammer and the axe before running off and hiding on the foreshore.
Detective Montgomery said the man was finally arrested by Rosebud police after passers-by saw him outside the station holding a knife, 2.45am.
The man complained of an injured leg and was taken to Dandenong Hospital for treatment where he was held under guard before being interviewed and charged five days later.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 24 July 2018
