Brisbane child accused of school stabbing allegedly faced ‘racist’ abuse, court hears

A Brisbane child accused of stabbing a fellow student was allegedly subjected to months of “racist” abuse and threats, a court has heard.

The 16-year-old child was arrested after allegedly stabbing a 17-year-old schoolmate on Tuesday.

The child, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared in the Richlands children’s court on Wednesday. He was granted bail.

The court heard allegations the child stabbed a fellow student multiple times.

The police prosecutor Sgt Shane Stephenson told the court the incident was “extremely serious and concerning” and alleged it was “premeditated”.

“The complainant suffered wounds to the right side of his lower back, right side of his torso, the wounding resulted in injuries with damage to his liver, causing internal bleeding,” Stephenson said.

“It’s deemed to be life-threatening, required urgent medical attention in surgery.”

Stephenson told the court the attack may have been motivated by a social media post.

“[The alleged attack] is completely disproportionate to any perceived insult that would have been arising out of a social media post.”

But the defence lawyer Torik Dib argued the child had been being bullied for months on social media.

“There are a number of children at a particular school of a particular background, and those people have been on social media, online, and in person, harassing and intimidating the applicant,” Dib said.

He read out messages in court he had been shown by the defendant’s family abusing the family on ethnic grounds.

Dib told the court the child had been threatened and vilified on a range of platforms.

“In the past two months, it’s escalated in violence in terms of specific racial attacks against him at school,” he said.

Magistrate Mark Howden described the messages as “threatening and racist”.

He ordered the child be released on bail with conditions.

The case was adjourned until 3 September.