A group of youths has bashed a teenage girl who lives with autism, leaving her with two black eyes.
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An autistic 14-year-old White Australian girl has been left with serious injuries after being bashed by five African teenagers in Melbourne.
Sickening footage of the attack on the helpless girl, named Dakota, at the Altona Pier on Wednesday was then posted online and sent to the victim’s sister by the gang.
The video shows several attackers repeatedly punching Dakota, pulling her hair, and pouring an energy drink over her head.
The savage bashing only stopped when an unknown man stepped in saying: “That’s enough, yeah? She’s little”.
Paramedics told Dakota’s mother she was struck in the head 55 times.
“They thought it was funny. She could have been killed,” she told 9News.
“My daughter won’t even go back to school now.”
Victoria Police are yet to lay charges over the incident, but said detectives were investigating.
“Officers were told a 14-year-old girl and her friends were approached by five girls at a pier near the Esplanade and Pier Street about 4.30pm,” a police spokesperson said.
“It is understood the group assaulted the girl before an unknown male intervened in the altercation.
“The girl was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. It is believed the parties are known to one another.”
The attack is just the latest in a series of horrific crimes carried out by African youths around Australia in recent weeks, including the alleged stabbing murder of Vyleen White, several machete attacks, and a number of violent home invasions.
Victoria Police have not released nationality or ethnicity information with their crime statistics since 2018, but during that year Sudanese-born offenders were overrepresented in all categories of crime, and especially in aggravated robberies, burglaries and serious assaults.