Just days out from Christmas no family should be going through this.
A father in tears.
A mother in shock.
Three siblings in disbelief.
A week ago in Sydney’s Bondi 23-year old Michael McEwan was bashed.
It was about 1.45am and he was headed towards the bus stop on Campbell Parade in Bondi to catch a bus with his mates. They were headed to the city to continue their fun.
Two weeks out from Christmas and Bondi was alive, teaming with revelers enjoying themselves.
He was set upon by an attacker – or possibly a group of attackers.
Bashed
He hit the ground.
He was punched.
He was kicked in the face.
And left to die.
His friends were ahead of him and a quick thinking bus driver called for help.
As you read this Michael McEwen remains unconscious in hospital after he suffered serious head injuries.
You can only imagine the heart stopping moment his parents received that unwanted wake up call.
It is the moment you pray that never happens to you. The moment you make deals with the devil to avoid.
For the McEwan family of Turamurra in Sydney’s North Shore that moment came, and since then their lives have not been the same.
Yesterday his family fronted a press conference at Waverly Police Station to plead for information that might help them lead to the cowards who did this.
His father, Robert McEwen spoke of the pain and grief his family had suffered since his eldest son was bashed to the ground.
“He could have been the next Thomas Kelly. He was as close to death as he could possibly be,” Mr McEwen said.
For Michael’s youngest brother Joey it was all too much. The eleven-year-old left the press conference in tears.
His idol, his big brother and his best mate had suffered something that no eleven-year-old year old could imagine.
“Michael comes from a very large immediate and extended family,” Michael’s father Robert McEwen said at the Waverly Police Station.
“He is also much loved by his many friends. He played rugby for Wahroonga Tigers Rugby Club where I coached him from the age of 10.”
“He’s a typical young man who loves having fun, yet some coward has hurt him so badly, he’s battling to stay alive,” Mr McEwen added.
Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas said during the week that police were “very concerned” about the condition of Michael and that investigations were continuing.
“I don’t think much is going through anyone’s head who would knock another human being down and then stomp on their head with their boots,” he said. “I just can’t see how that is a sane reaction. All I can put it down to is an enormous amount of alcohol that had been drunk without any restraint.” He told News Limited
But how much damage has been done to the former St Joseph College student remains unknown. He is still heavily sedated as doctors wait for the swelling on his brain to subside.
“He’s my eldest boy. He’s intelligent, good looking, popular and very friendly sort of a guy,” Mr McEwen said.
Eastern Suburbs police crime manager, Inspector Ana Loughman, said the attack could have been fatal.
“It can be one punch that can result in death,” Inspector Loughman said.
Eastern Suburbs local area crime manager Ana Loughman said the Bondi area was saturated by police on the night of Mr McEwen’s attack as part of the special ‘‘Operation Unite’’ crackdown.
Michael had been drinking with friends in a park which prohibits alcohol consumption.
Officers targeting alcohol-related violence had broken up a group of people drinking in the same park two hours before the assault. “Police were attending to another job across the road and police were on scene immediately afterwards,” she said.
Despite their massive presence in the area the attack still happened.
Yesterday his Dad spoke about the violence that had rocked his family.
“I don’t understand how somebody can have so much hate in their soul,” Mr McEwen said of his son’s attackers.
“This wasn’t a fair fight; as far as I know it was unprovoked.”
Writing in The Age Gino Vumbaca the executive director of the Australian National Council on Drugs, called upon us –society – to demand a solution to alcohol fueled violence.
He wrote:
A recent comment posted to an article on reducing alcohol problems was typical of a wider view when it said: “How about actually punishing people that play up on the grog and leave the rest of us alone.”
A snapshot of the “other person’s” problems show that 60 per cent of all police attendances, including 90 per cent of late-night calls, involve alcohol.
This is unsurprising, really, given 36 per cent of drinkers say their primary purpose when drinking is “to get drunk”.
Thirteen per cent of deaths of young people are attributed to alcohol and thousands of people are still arrested each month for drink driving despite what everyone knows.
It’s an ugly picture, which is estimated to cost more than $15.3 billion a year.
He called for State Governments to enact policies that will have a real impact on the culture of intoxication and its accompanying aggression.
For advertising and promotion of alcohol to cease and for people to take person responsibility for their own levels of intoxication.
In short, for ALL of us – governments, industry and individuals to step up and do something before another Michael McEwan or Thomas Kelly happens.
In the meantime, Michael McEwan lies in intensive care and his three siblings wait for their big brother to wake up.
His family yesterday begged to spread this message:
“Please, if you were driving past and witnessed the attack or maybe whoever has done this has confided in you…do the right thing and come forward.”
Anyone with information was urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Top Comments
Earlier curfews needed for pubs and clubs. Much harsher penalties need to be dealt with violence. And lastly, why is it that so many think the best way to have a good time is to get drunk. It's not like we don't have options for having fun in this country when we want to let our hair down. There needs to be a new perspective taken on alcohol consumption and what it means to write yourself off. It's celebrated here like it's a cool thing to do. It's not exactly like winning a formula one or writing a pullitzer prize winning book. And lastly, when I choose not to drink I shouldn't have to feel like an outsider/ not part of the crowd or that there is something wrong with me.
No one will say it so I will. We have let tonnes of people in from countries where violence is their first nature (middle east, Islanders). They come here and live in a Male dominated home where mothers and sisters are third class citizen and hence the "softer" side of these males does not get a chance to develop. Their male culture is basically a COWARD culture where one of their's picks a fight, they all join in. The comment "i will call my cousins, bro..." is so true. Additionally, it is not enough that the victim has fallen down or that he is outnumbered 8 to 1, they will all launch in with kicks and weapons. Ok for all you deniers, there are some white stupid boys as well, but most trouble makers (think bankstown, Parramatta) are from two specific cultures.
I would guess that a lot of these "coward hitters" aren't actually drunk but they target drunk victims because they know that their gang of 6 or more, and their weapons may still not be enough. Now to all the MM readers who don't live in Sydney, do your homework before you write your racist accusations. Look at all the kids who are getting smashed, and look at the arrests each week in the papers (not the fairfax press, they will never report the culture of the attackers).