Boy accused of stabbing Sydney University student has previous charges, authorities say

Melbourne, Australia — A state government minister said on Wednesday a 14-year-old boy accused of stabbing a student at the University of Sydney has faced charges that have been dismissed by a court, while newspapers reported he was accused of threatening to shoot fellow students.

The boy is the third Australian child to be charged in a knife attack linked to online radicalisation since April, prompting authorities to warn parents to be wary of the dangers of the internet.

The boy remained in a Sydney hospital for a mental health assessment the day after the attack on Tuesday morning, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said.

“We need to make sure that we are providing services and support to these children who are being radicalized online and their families,” Catley said.

Police said the boy took a bus to the hospital where he was stabbed to seek treatment for a cut on his hand. He was arrested at the hospital.

The 22-year-old student who was stabbed once in the neck was released from the same hospital overnight, Catley said.

The boy was wearing military clothing and used a kitchen knife in the attack, police said.

Catley said the suspect was charged by police last year and a court dismissed the charges. She added that he had completed a Department of Communities and Justice programme, which media reports described as a deradicalisation programme.

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources, that the suspect was charged last year with threatening to shoot classmates at his Sydney school and threatening to harm himself, but a magistrate dismissed the charges in February on mental health grounds.

Police have not yet determined the motive or filed a complaint.

A 16-year-old boy was shot dead by police after stabbing a stranger in the parking lot of a hardware store in the Australian city of Perth on May 4. The victim survived.

The teenager had also been in a deradicalization program since he detonated an improvised explosive device in a school bathroom two years earlier.

Another 16-year-old boy has been charged with committing a terrorist act after allegedly stabbing an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and a priest during a live-streamed church service in Sydney on April 15. Both clerics survived.