AU QLD: French Citizen Charged With Murder of British Woman August 254:30
A 29-year-old French man has been charged with murder, attempted murder, cruelty to animals and assaulting police after he was arrested for the stabbing of Mia Ayliffe-Chung. On the evening August 23, police arrived to find the 21-year-old British woman dead at the scene after she was stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife. The suspect, who has not been named, was caught on police body camera saying ?Allahu Ackbar? several times before he was capsicum sprayed and detained. Police have ruled out any political or religious motivation behind the attack, and Detective Superintendent Ray Rohweder said Ayliffe-Chung had no interest in the offender. The man will appear via video link at Townsville magistrate court on August 26. Credit: Queensland Police
Father of ‘hero’ backpacker says label meant nothing as he sat at son’s bedside
THE father of the murdered backpacker hailed as a “hero” for trying to save a friend from a stabbing at a Queensland hostel says the praise seemed meaningless as he sat at his son’s bedside.
Tom Jackson suffered 20 stab wounds, including one to the eye, as he tried to save fellow Brit Mia Ayliffe-Chung from the fatal attack in Home Hill, near Townsville, in August.
His dad, Les, who rushed to Australia to be at his son’s bedside after he heard the “horrific” news, said he didn’t care about the praise for his brave son at the time, he just wanted him to pull through.
“It didn’t make me feel anything,” he told news.com.au two months after his son’s death.
“I just wanted him to get better. I just wanted to take him home to his mum, even if there was some damage.
“They’d tried to save his eye, not the sight but just so he didn’t need a false eye. I didn’t care.
“I was like a zombie. I hadn’t slept in 48 hours.
“I gave him love from his mother and from the family. I cried a lot, to be honest, I just held his hand.”
Tom, 30, and Mia, 21, had been living at Shelley’s Hostel and working on a farm to get second-year visas to stay in Australia alongside French backpacker Smail Ayad, who developed an infatuation with the young woman and allegedly went on a rampage.
Ayad was charged with murder and is being held in a secure mental health unit in Brisbane after a preliminary diagnosis of schizophrenia. The 29-year-old was also charged with 12 counts of assaulting police — including allegations he bit officers — and one count of animal cruelty for allegedly killing a dog.
Six days after the alleged stabbing frenzy on Tuesday 23 August, Tom’s father made the heartbreaking decision to switch off his life support. His father, who flew straight from his home in the north of England and arrived two days after the attack, says he thinks now that his son was already gone by the time he got there.
“I arrived at the hospital to what I thought was a media scrum,” said the 58-year-old IT contractor.
“It wasn’t really, just a few cameras, but I thought it was bizarre.
“Tom was on a ventilator ... He looked like Tom except he had a patch over his eye.
“I think he was really gone by then because he was stabbed in the brain. They couldn’t take him down for a scan at that point.
“I think on the Saturday they managed to do a scan, after which they told me the best prognosis was for him to be in a vegetative state.
“I had to phone home and let my family know.”
Les was joined first by a friend of Tom’s who had been in Bangkok, then by his daughter Olivia and another friend who was working in India.
“I didn’t go in after that,” said Les.
“I’d said bye-bye.”
Several of Tom’s friends from the hostel were there too, including one of the key witnesses.
“I didn’t say a lot, he was very upset, good lord,” added Les.
“You could tell he was traumatised. He was in a right state.”
Les, Tom’s sister and a friend visited the hostel where the brave young man spent his final days before making a short trip to Cairns “so our final memory of Australia wasn’t Townsville hospital”.
Tom’s mother, who doesn’t fly, stayed in the UK with his younger brother Dan.
Tom shared a tiny four-bed room at the hostel, paying $150 a week, and there “wasn’t a lot to do” in the area. But the travel-mad 30-year-old — who worked every year in the Scilly Isles to fund his trips — was determined to stay in Australia despite hardships that made him consider leaving Home Hill.
“He found it difficult getting work,” said Les.
“He worked for a number of weeks where he didn’t get paid and didn’t get credit for his visa. He was out of cash and struggling.
“He was [in Home Hill] for quite a while without getting work and getting into debt. When he was getting into debt with the hostel, they took his passport and laptop. I said, go to the embassy and say you’ve lost your passport, but he said, ‘I’m OK.’
“The last thing he said was, ‘I’m starting to find my feet now, I definitely want to stay.’
“He always made friends easily.”
Tom’s heroics continued after his death, with his heart, lungs, liver and kidneys donated to six different people. He has been nominated for a bravery award by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and received awards from two radio stations in Cheshire, and the family has donated more than $6000 given in his memory to four charities.
Les has remained in touch with Mia’s mother Rosie Ayliffe, who is campaigning over backpacker rights in Australia.
He admits things have become harder for the family now the initial horror has subsided and the funeral has passed. “The natural focus is gone, I think we’re all starting to find it a bit difficult,” he said. “You have periods where you feel almost normal and periods where you can’t think straight.
“He was always away. He wasn’t someone who kept in touch regularly, Tom would just pop up now and then. As long as we knew he was OK, that was fine.
“Somewhere in the back of your head, he’s just away. It’s coming to terms with the fact we’ll never see him again.”
Originally published as ‘They called him a hero. I felt nothing’