A man has faced court and a Sydney grandmother is fighting for life after she was allegedly punched in the head while on a walk with her six-year-old grandson.
The 71-year-old woman was on Francis Street in Strathfield about 12.10pm yesterday when police say she encountered 52-year-old John Bozic, who was walking his dog.
It will be alleged Bozic’s dog took the boy’s ball and the grandmother had words with him before turning to her 46-year-old son-in-law looking for assistance.
Police allege Bozic assaulted the son-in-law before turning on the grandmother.
“Police will then allege the 52-year-old man approached the 71-year-old grandmother and with one hit has punched her in the head,” Superintendent Robert Toynton said.
“The lady has then fallen to the ground and subsequently a short time later police and emergency services were called to that location.”
Bozic was arrested at a home in Strathfield at 8.30am today and taken to Auburn Police Station.
He was charged with wounding a person with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm and common assault.
He appeared in Burwood Local Court and was refused bail.
The magistrate said it appeared it was a “deliberate assault which had racial implications”.
CCTV from the scene shows the little boy grabbing his ball and dragging his bike away after the alleged assault.
The six-year-old raise the alarm with his mother and she rushed to the scene.
The grandmother was rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a critical condition and underwent emergency surgery to have part of her skull removed.
“That woman is still in a critical condition,” Toynton said.
“Her condition is what I would call grave – she’s very, very unwell.
“From my experience as a police officer, this is an absolutely abhorrent attack.
“It is an unprovoked attack and it absolutely sickens us that this has happened in our community.
“But what we want to assure the community of is as police we will act swiftly, we will put all of our resources into these types of offences and we will arrest people and put them before the courts as quickly as we can.”
The alleged attack has sent shockwaves through the community.
“We were just disgusted obviously for something of that nature to occur,” resident Julie Huynh said.
