Australian in viral Vietnam cafe rampage faces criminal investigation

Vietnamese police have opened a criminal case against an Australian businessman over a rampage that wrecked a cafe in Da Nang and was caught on security cameras shared around the world.

The Office of the Investigation Police Agency under Da Nang City Police said June 9 that it had opened a criminal case and was investigating the man for disturbing public order.

Australian outlets identified him as Shaymus Lilly, 34, a marketing entrepreneur from Western Australia who had been living in the nearby town of Hoi An.

The episode unfolded in the early hours of May 30 at Ge Cafe on Le Hong Phong Street in Hai Chau Ward. Staff told Australian media that Lilly arrived shortly before midnight and sat without ordering, and that a customer used a translation app to help communicate with him. Lilly took the customer's phone, scrolled through it and refused to return it, then pulled off his shirt and smashed the device, warning everyone to leave within 10 seconds.

He went on to wreck the cafe with a wooden chair, shattering glass doors and destroying laptops, lights, the coffee machine, the grinder and rows of cups, according to the owner. Customers and staff fled into the street in panic, some leaving phones and laptops behind. Lilly then climbed to the mezzanine, kicked at a door, broke more property and restrained a young man, with footage appearing to show him holding the man in a chokehold, until police arrived and subdued him. He was taken to a police station at around 12:30 a.m.

The Australian man at the time of his arrest in Da Nang, Vietnam. Photo by Bao Nam

Da Nang police initially valued the damaged property at nearly VND383 million (US$14,500), covering customers' phones, laptops and tablets. The cafe owner separately estimated the venue's own losses at about VND500 million, with a further VND70 million in customer belongings, a Hai Chau ward official said in the days after the incident. Investigators are still assessing the full extent of the damage to decide whether to open an additional count of destroying property against him.

The disturbance drew a crowd late at night on Le Hong Phong, a central road running from a densely populated area down to the Han River, just across from the ward People's Committee office. Police said they reconstructed the events from the cafe's cameras and that Lilly was resistant and uncooperative during questioning.

His aunt, Simone Buncher, told News.com.au that Lilly has lived with bipolar disorder for about a decade and had gone roughly three years without a serious flare-up. She said he has no criminal record and was an ordinary person who suffered a severe mental health crisis while abroad, and that he is unlikely to remember what happened. The family said its priority was his safety and mental health in detention, that it would cover the cost of the damage in full, and that relatives were preparing to travel to Vietnam.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance. The cafe said it would close briefly for repairs and asked the public not to send donations after the footage drew international attention.

Disturbing public order is a criminal offense under Vietnam's penal code that can carry a prison term.