A 23-year-old Indian student-cum-cabbie was “violently and cowardly” attacked by his passenger who “hated” Indians, leaving him with a fractured skull, nose and cheekbone, an Australian court has heard.
The court hearing the case was told on Wednesday that the attack on the Indian youth in Campbellfield over two years ago by his 22-year-old passenger Murat Kilink could have been “racially inspired,” the Age daily reported on Thursday.
Kilinc, unemployed, who had pleaded guilty to recklessly causing serious injury, was remanded for sentencing next week.
The attacker’s psychologist Rachael Freeland told the country court that Kilinc, whose victim suffered a fractured skull, nose and cheekbone, felt Indians acted “in a way that was completely self-serving.”
She said that Kilinc cited an example of Indians undercutting workers in the Shepparton fruit-picking areas, who, he claimed, secured work at their expense and how his mother lost a cleaning job to an Indian.
When asked by Judge Joe Gullaci if a combination of Kilinc’s alcohol abuse, anger issues and underlying hatred of Indians might explain the offence, she said they might have “contributed” to it. Kilinc had told a psychologist the core issue of his and his family’s culture of hatred towards Indians was their apparent lack of concern for others, the report said. —PTI