A Chilean national who moved to Australia four months ago says he will ‘never be the same’ after he was allegedly beaten by a group of teens on a train and had his face slashed.
Felipe Munoz, 31, had just finished his shift at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne last Thursday and was making his way home on the train when he encountered the group.
He said he had his headphones in when four teenagers aged between 15 and 17 walked into his carriage about 6.30pm as it neared Huntingdale Station in the city’s south-east.
The teenagers were ‘yelling and bothering some people’ but he ‘didn’t pay too much attention’, Mr Munoz told 7News.
However, the youngest-looking member of the gang then allegedly approached him and asked him what station he was getting off at.
Mr Munoz, suspecting they might be considering robbing him, replied: ‘Why should I tell you that?’.
‘He just punched me in the face … I stood up to fight against him and we both fell down. Then all the guys that were with him started to punch me in my face, my head, my chest.’
Mr Munoz said that when the train reached Huntingdale Station all but one of the boys fled onto the platform but the remaining teenager allegedly pulled out a knife and slashed him from below his left ear to his mouth.
Felipe Munoz moved to Australia four months ago and says he ‘will never be the same’ after he was allegedly randomly attacked by a group of teens on a Melbourne train
The group fled at Huntingdale Station where a 17-year-old girl help attend to Felipe’s wounds
The wound, which was 6cm long and 6mm deep, required 30 stitches and will likely leave a large scar.
‘I feel devastated. This kind of thing changes your life, and not in a good way,’ Mr Munoz said.
‘It almost took my nerves… I think that he just wanted to kill me. To cut my throat,’ Mr Munoz alleged.
He said he only realised he’d 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 Huntingdale Station ran onto the train and assisted Mr Munoz.
‘I saw a girl next to me who was helping to stop the bleeding,’ he said.
He said he was thinking of his wife and ‘how to tell her that I was in that situation’.
The partially healed cut on Mr Munoz’s cheek which required 30 stitches
Mr Munoz now fears catching the train and has not returned to his job at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
‘Just this morning, I went to buy some stuff from the market, and I can see people looking at me like ”wow what happened to him”,’ he said.
‘I’m never going to be the same person who came to Australia four months ago.’
Four boys eventually turned themselves into police and were charged with intentionally causing injury and affray.
A 16-year-old Malvern East boy, a 16-year-old Botanic Ridge boy and 17-year-old Malvern East boy have been granted bail.
A 15-year-old Clayton boy who allegedly was the one who slashed Mr Munoz with the blade remains in custody
The four boys will appear in children’s court at a later date.
