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Australian man charged over brutal hammer attack on two Irish men

Irish backpackers, in their 30s, in critical condition after bloody attack

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, August 28, 2012, 7:54 AM

Updated Tuesday, August 28, 2012, 7:54 AM

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Forensics officers examine the scene after a brutal hammer attack on two Irish men

Photo by Google Images

Two Irish men in their 30s remain in critical conditions in Melbourne after they were attacked with a hammer. Police have arrested Australian Luke James Wentholt from the St Kilda area.

The Irish men were left with life-threatening head injuries after the assault that took place at 1am, at a residential address in Lyndoch Avenue.

According to the Irish Sun the two victims are backpackers. They also reported that the attack took place at a boarding house.

The men were rushed to Alfred Hospital after the attack where they were described as being in “critical but stable condition.”

RTE reports that the Glen Eira Bay detectives arrested Wentholt when he went to hospital shortly after the attack seeking treatment for his injuries. He was charged with two counts of intentionally causing serious injury, two counts of recklessly causing serious injury, and other related offenses.

Wentholt appeared before Melbourne Magistrates' Court and was remanded in custody to appear at the same court on 8th October.

Nster.com

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seanomelb | Aug 31, 2012, 08:15 PM EDT

Scared of what merefalow??

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merefalow | Aug 31, 2012, 07:19 PM EDT

both my son and daughter backpacked,including Aussie,i was always scared so i sympathize with the parents of these victims,truly shocking assault.

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seanomelb | Aug 31, 2012, 08:49 AM EDT

my post has vanished. Curitiba you still have boarding houses in the USA except they are called cheap hotels the boardinghouses are fast disappearing as health regulations get tougher. You keep referring to the Irish lads as living in a hostel they were not.It appears they were aiding a woman from sexual assault.

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seanomelb | Aug 30, 2012, 11:37 PM EDT

Two victims are not indicative of the system. Boarding houses do exist in America they call them cheap hotels and the owners are akin to slum lords who break the law. As I stated Australia is no different to any other western nation and by all accounts better than some.

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Curitiba | Aug 30, 2012, 06:57 AM EDT

seanomelb : Boarding houses are a very old fashioned mode of living that has gone out of vogue here and I assume, in America too, but still exist in Australia. Most people who can't afford a flat generally flat-share. When I lived in Sydney, I lived in one. There were about 12-15 residents who shared 2 bathrooms and the cooking was done in your own room. The split between backpackers and Aussies/ NZ was about 50/50. You live in very close proximity to people you don't know anything about. Most people were ok, but there were a few resident psychos, one of which threatened to throw my roommate off the balcony because he used the upstairs bathroom. Another one who spent his spare time smoking weed lost his pet snake in the house, a few people were chucked out for fighting, non payment of rent, etc. The first house manager took the rent off us and spent it instead of giving it to the landlord (lucky we kept receipts). However, the brutal attack these two unfortunate young men sustained certainly indicates to me that that the hostel owners don't seem to be vetting residents in any way at all.

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seanomelb | Aug 29, 2012, 07:51 PM EDT

Curitiba I'll ignore cillowens stupidity and again I believe your perception of crime in Australia is not quite right. Their is certainly an underclass and crime but to infer that somehow crime is more dangerous or pronounce than any other western nation is unfair.

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cillowen | Aug 29, 2012, 11:48 AM EDT

before emmigration or travelling out of Ireland there needs be a requirement of those so desirous to attend a seminar akin to defensive driving. Emphasis on having one's senses about them at all times - verboden, smashed drunkedness and mouthing off.

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Curitiba | Aug 29, 2012, 04:49 AM EDT

You're quite right Sean, that's what the article said. I read that they stayed in a hostel "popular with backpackers" in the independent.ie., so I don't think that they were necessarily "taking a chance". Some boarding houses are owned by people who cater to the longer-term working holidaymaker, because you are not allowed to stay in a backpacker hostel for more than a month, usually. I must admit, when I started full-time work in Queensland, I checked out a few of these non-backpacker boarding houses. The residents were the roughest-looking blokes I ever seen in my life, I would have been scared stiff to live there. Australia has a huge underclass and many of the locals I encountered over the years seemed to spend their entire spare time taking drugs and many seemed to have a hair-trigger temper as a result. I wouldn't be surprised if this terrible assault was set off by something trivial. Young people should take care when they go to Australia, it's a nice country on the whole, but some of the crimes that take place there are shocking, even coming from the UK where the perception of crime is higher.

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seanomelb | Aug 28, 2012, 08:25 PM EDT

Curitiba they took a risk and stayed in a cheap boarding house not a backpackers hostel. You've got it wrong the standard in backpacker hostels has not changed.

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Curitiba | Aug 28, 2012, 08:18 PM EDT

When I travelled round Australia, hostels were for foreign backpackers or working holidaymakers only. You had to show a passport to stay there. They tended not to allow Aussies to stay there, because the sort of local they would attract would be the homeless or drifter type. Asking for a passport tended to keep these types out. They must have dropped their standards since I was there. They appear to be letting hard-as-nails hobos with goodness knows what psychological problems or violent criminal past to share rooms with naive tourists. These hostels need to get their act together. Backpacker hostels are not halfway houses for ex-cons.

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