An international manhunt is underway for a suspect who allegedly doused an infant with scalding hot coffee at a park in Australia late last month.
Queensland police say the coward assaulted the infant at Hanlon Park in Stones Corner around noon on Aug. 27.
That’s when a man walked up to a family with whom he had no relation, and poured a hot liquid onto the child before fleeing the scene.
Emergency crews were called, and the infant was rushed to a hospital with “serious burns,” Queensland police said in a press release.
The child was later released from the hospital.
Detectives from the Morningside Child Protection Investigation Unit identified the suspect as a 33-year-old “foreign national.”
Queensland police said the suspect has since fled Australia.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest for “intending to cause grievous bodily harm,” Queensland Police’s Paul Dalton said.
Dalton described the attack on the infant as the “most cowardly” he’s seen in a decades-long career.
“I’ve seen a lot of disgusting acts. But this is one, if you look at the situation, I can’t think of someone being in a more vulnerable situation and being more vulnerable — a young mother and a baby sitting on the ground,” Dalton said.
The department is working with national and international partner agencies to investigate.
A friend of the family, meanwhile, has set up a GoFundMe page to help the infant with his recovery.
The page said the child “has a long recovery ahead of him which will include further doctors, specialists [and] hospital appointments.”
