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A Phillip Island mother has detailed the horrific moment a stranger “coward-punched” her 10-year-old son and repeatedly stabbed her with a pair of scissors in Melbourne’s CDB, urging for a conversation about a rise in violent crime.
Cherie Holt is recovering in hospital from multiple stab wounds and a broken leg after she and her youngest child were attacked outside Victoria Police’s Spencer Street headquarters on Tuesday.
The 46-year-old was visiting Melbourne with her 10-year-old and two other children when 27-year-old Jeremy Sowood allegedly lunged at them while they were walking back to their apartment.
Sowood allegedly punched her 10-year-old son, who lives with a rare and inoperable form of brain cancer, on the side of his head, causing him to fall on the ground.
“My immediate reaction was to get to my son and make sure he was OK. I yelled at my 16-year-old son to go and get the police while I scooped my 10-year-old up,” Holt said in a statement on Friday.
“I then turned to see where the man was and realised he had turned around and was coming back towards us.
“I yelled at my boys to get out of there and run. I stood between the man and my children because there was absolutely no way I was going to let him get to them again.
“That’s when he turned his attention to me.”
Sowood allegedly punched Holt before grabbing her in a headlock and stabbing her four times in the upper body. Her two other sons watched on, horrified, before her eldest alerted police to the attack.
“At some point I realised one of my boys hadn’t been able to run. I could hear him screaming, ‘Mum, Mum’, in absolute horror,” Holt said.
“From that moment, I just held onto the man with everything I had because I couldn’t allow him to turn around and attack my child.”
Sowood was arrested and taken into custody after several nearby witnesses intervened. Holt said she was grateful to the group for stepping in to protect her and her children.
Holt and her children were visiting Melbourne for brain cancer treatment for the 10-year-old boy, who is recovering in a different hospital and has undergone a routine MRI scan.
Holt said she and her children were still processing the incident, calling for a “bigger conversation” about an increase in violent crime.
“I want our government to recognise that families should not have to accept serious violence as an increasingly normal part of life. Something needs to change,” she said.
Sowood appeared in a Melbourne Magistrates’ Court hearing on Wednesday at which he refused to answer the magistrate’s questions and told the court there was “no need to hide” his offending.
“I punched the kid in the head, I took the scissors, I stabbed the woman in the head,” Sowood said as he appeared via video link from custody. “There’s no need to hide it. At least they’re both still breathing, so at least I kept my humanity.”
He is expected to return to court in November.
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