Sydney’s night of broken glass
Assaults with glasses and glass bottles seems to be increasing with three such incidents across the city in one night. Police have turned to the public in their search for three men involved in one attack.
About 11:30pm on Saturday July 3, 21 year old Ryan Wade was on Kent street with four mates. Three other young men approached and, allegedly, picked a fight. During the fight Ryan was struck over the head with a glass bottle, lacerating his face and fracturing his skull.
He was rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he received emergency neurosurgery. Speaking about the incident in a press conference the following Thursday the injured man’s mother, Julie, said “My son Ryan has had to undergo neurosurgery and remains in a hospital bed receiving round the clock treatment” adding “the ramifications of this attack have left us devastated”, and urging the offenders to hand themselves in to the police.
Detective Inspector Houlahan also spoke at the press conference, where photos of the alleged attackers were released. He called on any one who had seen the men “running south along Kent Street” shortly before 12 on the nigh of the third.
“We believe at least one of the men may have had blood stains on his clothing” he said, describing the men as of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance.
The incident was just the first, and most severe, in a series of three such attacks over the weekend.
An hour after the first assault, a 36-year-old man allegedly struck a 20-year-old man in the face with a glass at a hotel on George Street at The Rocks, slashing his face and eyebrow.
Two hours later another man, 28, was drinking with a woman at a night club in Bayswater Road, Kings Cross. Two men approached and an argument ensued. The 28-year-old attempted to walk away from the confrontation, and was bottled from behind.
By Austin G. Mackell
