Fears alleged attacker left trail of ‘fake clues’ after throwing scalding hot coffee on baby in Brisbane

A foreign national suspected of throwing a hot coffee over a baby in a sickening unprovoked attack may have deliberately left a trail of “fake clues” to evade capture before fleeing the country, a veteran investigator has claimed.

Nine-month-old Luka suffered horrific burns to his face and body when the alleged perpetrator approached him and his mother while they picnicked in Brisbane’s Hanlon Park on the morning of August 27, dumping a Thermos of coffee over the infant before fleeing.

He fled the scene and a massive manhunt commenced, but questions are now swirling about why it took investigators so long to identify the suspect.

Luka has since left hospital, his family confirmed on Wednesday.

Queensland Police revealed on Monday that the 33-year-old had left Australia on an international flight on August 31 using his own passport, just 12 hours before investigators confirmed his identity.

Detective Inspector Paul Dalton told reporters police had lost critical hours after receiving incorrect information about his identity, suggesting the man had used “counter surveillance” tactics to avoid detection.

Charlie Bezzina, a former homicide detective with Victoria Police who led a number of high-profile manhunts throughout his career, told The Daily Mail the man could have employed a number of basic tactics to throw police off the scent long enough to escape, such as ditching his mobile phone and using cash.

Mr Bezzina said the man may have even phoned in fake tips to police.

“Counter-surveillance can be as simple as, ‘I’ll call in a bodgy name to police, I’ll leave my phone somewhere, because I know they can trace me on my phone and I’ll just get another prepaid one somewhere else,’” he said.

“You know, ‘I’ll book into a motel with a bodgy name, I’ll avoid using credit cards,’ it’s all that. It doesn’t need to be terribly sophisticated.”

Mr Bezzina added the “real concern is that he was thinking to employ these counter-surveillance tactics while he is on the run and what it says about his state of mind”.

“There will be a genuine fear he is one of those people who gets off on playing a cat-and-mouse game with detectives and that thinks he’s smart and wants to be chased by police,” he said.

“I mean, why would anyone want to spill boiling water on a baby? And then they’re looking to employ tactics to escape? You really need to look at the type of person we’re dealing with here — and it’s not good.”

Police have not publicly revealed the man’s name or the destination of his flight, and Mr Bezzina said this may be their way of luring him into a false sense of security.

The former cop said he was confident that in the long run the man’s attempt to evade justice would be futile.

“There is sometimes a concern that in some third-world countries they don’t particularly have a ‘care factor’ about crimes committed outside their borders,” he said.

“But in this case, given the enormity of the hideous act that this man has allegedly perpetrated on a young baby, that will pull at the heartstrings of any government — and any police agency — in the world. And no one will want the bad publicity that would come with them having this suspect, who has allegedly committed this heinous crime, in their country and that they’re not co-operating.”

Queensland Police on Monday revealed the man made several calculated movements immediately after the attack, travelling on foot and by train, zigzagging across several suburbs.

Immediately after the attack he travelled to the southern Brisbane suburb of Tarragindi, where he changed his clothes outside a church.

He then caught a rideshare car into central Brisbane before travelling to Caxton Street in Petrie Terrace in the city’s inner west.

The trail initially ran cold, but detectives now believe he then travelled by car to Sydney, arriving on August 28.

“It soon became apparent to us that this person was aware of police methodologies, was certainly conducting counter-surveillance activities, which made the investigation quite complex,” Det Insp Dalton said on Monday.

He revealed that alleged attacker had entered and exited Australia several times since 2019 and had been an “itinerant worker”.

In addition to possessing both working and holiday visa, he lived at a number of addresses across the country’s east, but none in Queensland.

Det Insp Dalton described the investigation as one of the most “complex and frustrating” in his career and said the 30 officers working on the case were “devastated” the man managed to flee the country just hours before he was identified.

“They are devastated that they missed this person by 12 hours,” he said. “I think only the family would be more upset about that.”

Police know where the man flew to and have issued a warrant for his arrest, triggering a complex legal process to bring him back to Australia to face justice.

It comes after another former investigator called out police for initially failing to specify the race of the man.

David Craig, a former AFP detective superintendent, questioned whether cops erred on the side of political correctness when issuing their first description of the alleged attacker to avoid being seen as racist.

“His description was reported as ‘a person [with] tan skin’ — that doesn’t narrow it down very much,” Mr Craig told Seven’s Sunrise on Monday.

That vague characterisation, provided to the media by Queensland Police and reported widely, avoided any clarification that the man is Asian.

It was a day until CCTV images of the alleged attacker were released.

At the time of the attack, the man was wearing a black hat, glasses, a shirt and shorts.

“When a baby has been injured, attempted murder if you like, then we need to call out exactly who we’re looking for,” Mr Craig said.

“He should’ve been called out as a man of Asian appearance, just as we do people of caucasian appearance. It didn’t happen quickly enough in this case. This is not racial vilification terms. These are identifying terms.”

Tip-offs from members of the public were necessary in this instance, Mr Craig said, so the hesitance by police could have lost them valuable information.

That’s especially true given the suspicion that the man had “some kind of counter-surveillance experience”, he added.

“He knew what he was doing,” he said. “He was obviously avoiding electronic trails so he couldn’t be followed so easily.”

KIIS FM radio host Kyle Sandilands also took aim at the vague and “woke” description of the suspect initially provided by authorities.

“How is there a manhunt on for this Chinese guy in Brisbane who threw the hot water over a baby, and nearly burnt the baby to death?” he told listeners on Tuesday.

“No one said that you’re looking for an Asian man, they just said ‘the man fled the scene’. If there’s a manhunt on, give us the description for Christ’s sake. You’ve gotta be aware — if there’s a manhunt on, we can’t be that stupid as a society that we’re not saying whether they’re white, black, tall, skinny, fat. That’s just ridiculous.”

The devastated parents of baby Luka, who has already undergone multiple surgeries, said they were heartbroken to learn the alleged attacker had escaped.

“It sounds like they were very, very close in catching him,” his mum told the ABC.

“This obviously means that we’re going to have to wait who knows how long to get justice for our son.”

The woman said she has been “living in fear” and suffering anxiety and stress since the incident, which police said resembled an “ambush”.

“I had no idea where this person was, I didn’t want to leave this hospital because it became our safe space,” she said.

“Returning home I had panic attacks, and still continue to do so. I do feel relief that he’s not in this country, in some sense, but I will always have fear and anxiety being out in public with my son. It’s affected my mental health for the rest of my life.”

In a post shared to social media, the first-time mum said she was searching for answers, writing, “Constant questions eating away at me, Why? Why him? Why not me? Why an innocent defenceless baby.”

But Luka’s mother said she had been “blown away” by the support she and her family have received through a GoFundMe campaign set up to pay for her child’s medical expenses.

“This go fund me will be able to support Luka with all of his ongoing care needs which is truly a weight lifted off our shoulders,” she said. “Given the nature of the event this will be an extremely long journey ahead for us all.”

The nine-month-old is “incredibly resilient” and was right back to “causing chaos” after his third surgery, his mother revealed.

“He is such a strong little boy and we are so, so proud of him,” she said.

“This horrific event should have never happened.”

— with NCA NewsWire