Cliff bashing leads to fall
Grisly injuries as teen pushed or knocked over edge
A MOTHER is pleading for answers after a violent attack left her son with a caved-in skull, a broken eye socket and a potential brain fluid leak.
Still living in fear, the 17year-old has since lost all feeling in the side of his face after he was allegedly beaten and knocked from a cliff on North Burleigh headland.
Through tears, the boy’s mother yesterday told the Bulletin of the shock and fear that ran through her when she received a panicked call from her “shy and sweet” son at 9.30pm the night he was attacked last month.
“He was screaming, just saying ‘mum I have no teeth, I have been bashed’,” the mother said.
“I was asking him ‘what can you see, what can you see,’ but he said he was too scared to look and was hiding in the bushes.
“I didn’t know what to do, it was terrifying.”
Police have charged one youth. Now the mother is pleading for witnesses to come forward because she believes several people were involved in the ambush, including adults.
Her son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been with friends at a party where – the mother said – he confronted a group of youths, questioning them about a stolen handbag.
According to her son, the teens he spoke to returned with others, including adults, who set upon him while he was walking home with a friend. The pair were on the path over the headland when they were attacked.
She says one of the group appeared to be carrying a machete.
“They found him and held him and his friend, and they kept hitting him,” she said.
Investigating police have charged a youth and will allege the woman’s son, who is a Year 12 student, was pushed or punched in the back from behind and, dazed, knocked off the headland.
The Palm Beach mother has shown the Bulletin a photo of a rocky ravine where she believes her son fell.
She said her son was knocked over a fence by a grown man’s final blow when attacked.
Severely injured, he managed to reach the North Burleigh Surf Live Saving Club where police were called and he received first aid.
“When I walked in and saw him I collapsed,” she said.
“He was in a chair with blood all over him.”
The mother who is a nurse, said the incident reminded her of serious car accidents or blunt force trauma.
“I knew there was something severely wrong with him, the way he had lost feeling in his face,” she said.
“He has multiple contusions to the face, a blow-out fracture and a haematoma behind his eye. I’ve only seen injuries like that in a hammer attack or a car crash.
“His eye had fallen back into his skull as the orbital floor was completely smashed.
“There was liquid leaking out of his nose which they thought could be brain fluid so he was rushed from Tweed Hospital to the Gold Coast University Hospital.”
Still in shock, her son had asked doctors to lock the door to the Tweed emergency room to prevent any attackers from entering.
Police charged a 17-year-old Varsity Lakes youth this month with one count of assault occasioning bodily harm. He is to be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.
“This has changed (my son’s) whole life, and mine”.
“He is a Year 12 student. He has his formal – this is meant to be the best year of his life.
“I could be speaking to you about my dead son, because this all could have been so much worse.”
The woman said they were thankful for the work of doctors, surgeons and dentists.
With only one person charged, she is seeking the help of other witnesses.
“I will fight until I get to whoever is responsible. There are adults involved here,” she said.
“To me as a mum, I don’t know how they (the attackers) can sleep at night.
“The violence has got to stop on the Gold Coast. It is just terrifying.”