A Chilean national who moved to Australia four months ago says he will “never be the same” after a group of teenagers allegedly beat him on a train and slashed his face.
Felipe Muñoz, 31, had just finished his shift at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital last Thursday and was heading home on the train when he came across the group.
He said he had headphones on when four teenagers aged between 15 and 17 boarded his train at about 6:30 p.m. as it approached Huntingdale station in the city’s southeast.
The teens were “yelling and bothering some people,” but he “didn’t pay too much attention to them,” Munoz told 7News.
However, the youngest member of the gang allegedly approached him and asked him which station he would get off at.
Mr. Muñoz, suspecting that they might be thinking of robbing him, replied: “Why should I tell you that?”
“He punched me in the face… I stood up to fight him and we both fell to the ground. Then all the guys who were with him started hitting me in the face, head, chest.”
Mr. Muñoz said that when the train pulled into Huntingdale station, all but one of the boys fled to the platform, but the remaining teen allegedly pulled out a knife and slashed him from below his left ear to his mouth.
Felipe Muñoz moved to Australia four months ago and says he will “never be the same” after he was allegedly randomly attacked by a group of teenagers on a Melbourne train.
The group fled at Huntingdale Station, where a 17-year-old girl helped treat Felipe’s wounds.
The wound, 6cm long and 6mm deep, required 30 stitches and will likely leave a large scar.
“I feel devastated. These kinds of things change your life, and not for the better,” Muñoz said.
“He almost drove me crazy… I think he just wanted to kill me, to cut my throat,” Muñoz said.
He said he only realised he had been injured when he touched his cheek, felt a wound and then looked at his hand which was covered in blood.
A 17-year-old girl who was at the Huntingdale station ran to the train and helped Mr. Muñoz.
“I saw a little girl next to me helping me stop the bleeding,” she said.
He said he was thinking about his wife and “how to tell her that I was in that situation.”
The partially healed cut on Mr. Muñoz’s cheek that required 30 stitches.
Mr Muñoz is now afraid to take the train and has not returned to his job at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
‘Just this morning I went to buy some things at the market and I saw people looking at me and thinking, ‘Wow, what happened to him?’,’ she said.
“I will never be the same person who arrived in Australia four months ago.”
Four boys eventually turned themselves in to police and were charged with wilfully causing injury and rioting.
A 16-year-old from Malvern East, a 16-year-old from Botanic Ridge and a 17-year-old from Malvern East have been granted bail.
A 15-year-old Clayton boy who allegedly cut Mr. Muñoz with the knife remains in custody.
All four children will appear in juvenile court at a later date.
