Canadian wheelchair user beaten in Australia

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Canadian wheelchair user beaten in Australia
CBC News
Thursday, March 11, 2010

A 35-year-old Canadian who uses a wheelchair was beaten in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday and is in hospital in serious condition, according to police reports.

Heath Proden is from Manitoba but has been in Sydney since November on an extended visit with his girlfriend

He was waiting to catch a train at a city station at about 11 p.m. local time when he was approached and verbally attacked by two teenage boys, the New South Wales police said on their website. The physical attack that followed was recorded by security cameras at the station.

Police have charged two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, with armed robbery and attempt to cause bodily harm. Both have been denied bail.

After being confronted by the teens, Proden tried to leave the station via an elevator but was punched in the face by one of the boys and knocked from his chair, police said.

"I know he was quite intimidated and the only way for him to escape was by the lift, which unfortunately was where they trapped him and beat him," his girlfriend, Kristin Sharrock, told CBC News.

The teenagers allegedly then stomped on Proden and hit him on the head and body with metal bars, including one from his wheelchair.

The teens ran away with Proden's belongings and wheelchair, police said, but returned later — and repeatedly — to resume beating him.

Proden remains in a hospital northeast of Sydney, where he was being prepared for surgery on Thursday morning to treat severe cuts on his head and a depression in his skull.

"Fortunately, there's no injuries other than a compressed fracture of the skull," Sharrock said. "All his neurological exams have come back good, thank goodness.

"All the bruises are starting to appear now, so now pretty much his whole arms and torso are just black and blue from where he defended himself."

Sharrock said Proden was "awake and lucid and doing quite well under the circumstances, but he's "distraught, obviously, and very upset, and just can't believe that it's happened."

She said Proden went to a pub to listen to Doc Walker, a Canadian country music band that was playing in the city. He was on his way home when the beating happened.

He grew up with members of the band in Portage la Prairie, Man., located about 70 kilometres west of Winnipeg, but now lives in Winnipeg Beach, a town about 65 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

"He's a kind, generous, strong individual," Sharrock said, fighting back tears. "He doesn't deserve what's happened to him."

Proden's mother, Shellan, who also lives in Winnipeg Beach, said she was sick to her stomach when Sharrock told her about the attack.

"I just want him home," she said. "I just want him home and safe. I just want to see him."

Shellan has not been able to watch the video of the beating, which is being played on news broadcasts around the world. Every time it comes on, she has to leave the room.

"It's sick, sick," she said, stopping to cry. "These tears have been over and over and over."

Proden's grandmother, Vivian Proden, said he has used a wheelchair since breaking his back in a snowmobile accident in 2000.

"This boy has had a devastating life," she said. "He's a paraplegic. He's had a difficult time dealing with life and now this trip to Australia to visit his girlfriend was a highlight of his life, a happy part of his life for the first time, and now this happens. It's not fair, not fair at all." ...

The incident "appears to be a random act" and police have not determined a motive, police spokeswoman Joanne Elliott told CBC News. She said she'd never heard of an assault like this one.

"And I know that very, very experienced police who have worked in Sydney's western suburbs for 20 years … were absolutely appalled by what happened."

But according to freelance reporter Tim Stackpool, many in the community — about an hour's drive west of Sydney's famed beaches — say this type of beating "was destined to happen."

"The crime rate there has been going up and up and up and up," Stackpool told CBC News. "The police have been doing their utmost to keep it under control, but this is a place in Sydney where perhaps there is not a lot for the youth of the streets to … do.

"It is a cheaper area to buy property in Sydney, and some young families and young couples are moving in there now. But of course, over many years, some undesirable elements have crept into that community and unfortunately, 11 o’clock at night on that railway station where the victim was is perhaps not the place to be."

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Proden ‘recovering comfortably,’ says his father
Winnipeg Sun

Wheelchair-bound Heath Proden is “recovering comfortably and nicely” from a partially crushed skull suffered in an assault in Australia, says the victim’s father.

John Proden said Heath — a resident of Winnipeg Beach — underwent skull surgery that took a couple of hours longer than expected at a Sydney-area hospital, but without complications.

“Everything was good — the surgery went totally great,” Proden said from his home in Portage la Prairie.

Though he didn’t have details, John Proden said he’s assuming the surgery ran longer than anticipated “because this has attracted so much attention, and they just wanted to do the best possible job” during the operation.

Shellan Proden, the 35-year-old’s mother, said he is “fine now” after Wednesday night’s surgery to repair the collapsed section of his skull.

“They went in and cleaned the fragments up, and brought this piece back up,” Shellan said, adding she spoke by telephone to Heath and his girlfriend, Kristin Sharrock, after the operation.

“He knew everything, he was coherent. He knew who he is.”

Victim ‘provoked’ pair
Accused’s kin blame disabled ’Toban
Winnipeg Sun

The family of one of the teenage suspects in the severe beating of a disabled Manitoba man in Australia has blamed the victim for allegedly provoking the boys charged in the incident.

A sister of the 15-year-old youth in custody in the Sydney area spoke up for her brother on an Australian radio station Thursday, claiming wheelchair-bound Heath Proden, 35, started the dispute late Tuesday night at a railway station just west of the city.

The sister suggested New South Wales police, who investigated and arrested the boys, haven’t publicly released parts of security video that show how the incident began before Proden — a resident of Winnipeg Beach — was beaten, in part with metal parts pulled from his wheelchair.

“(The police) didn’t show the bit of the video recording where he punched my brother in the face twice before that happened,” the sister said of Proden, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “He’s a really good bloke. He does anything his family tells him, this is something he wouldn’t do.”

John Proden, father of the man who remains at a Sydney hospital following what his family says was successful surgery for a severely fractured skull, slammed the claim as ludicrous.

“I don’t see what sense it would make for a guy in a wheelchair to provoke a group of youths,” Proden said from his home in Portage la Prairie.

“Secondly, is that the justification they’re using for having beat my son to near death? If that’s their best defence, they have no defence.”

Police have said they suspect the attack, allegedly by the 15-year-old and another boy, aged 16, was unprovoked.

Wheelchair-bound Manitoba man attacked in Australia
Winnipeg Sun

WINNIPEG - The grandmother of a disabled Winnipeg man who was assaulted in Australia wants the two thugs who allegedly beat him to be brought to justice.

Vivian Proden said her grandson, 35-year-old Heath Proden, was to undergo surgery on his skull after being attacked in his wheelchair at a train station Tuesday night just outside Sydney.

“His skull is fractured by the terrible assault,” Vivian Proden, 78, said from her home near Portage la Prairie, “It’s deplorable. It’s all over the world like that, though, isn’t it? Are you safe anywhere?” she said of the attack, which was carried out, in part, with pieces from the man’s wheelchair. “I’d like to see them sentenced to the top ... instead of slapping their hands and letting them go in a month or two. The sentence should be severe.” Vivian is hopeful her grandson will recover.

She is right, it is "all over the world". So how do we stop this sort of violence happening?