Liam Michael Bradley avoids jail over fire attack on woman and her daughter with swastika on his forehead
Originally published on The West Australian
A man who tried to set fire to an Aboriginal woman and her daughter while sporting a back-to-front swastika on his forehead has avoided jail.
Liam Michael Bradley carried out the sickening racial attack, targeting the 40-year-old woman and her 15-year-old daughter as they walked near a Gosnells shopping centre in February last year.
Police said Bradley was wearing a distinctive scarf emblazoned with a swastika and other Nazi insignia and had used white paint to draw a swastika backwards on his forehead before he carried out the attack.
He yelled vile racial abuse at the mother and daughter, including “you should all be killed”. Mr Bradley then used a spray can and a barbecue lighter to create a 30cm flame, aiming it at the pair, before walking away.
The mother received a minor burn to her arm.
Bradley was sentenced in Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to aggravated conduct likely to racially harass and endangering the life, health or safety of a person.
He was handed an eight-month jail term, suspended for 12 months with conditions.
A previous hearing was told Bradley had schizophrenia and was at the “peak of his mental illness” when he acted.
At one point, Bradley argued the symbol on his forehead was a symbol of “Buddhism”.
Bradley was charged after a dramatic citizen’s arrest, with members of the public spotting him following a call for his whereabouts and detaining him until police arrived.
Police at the time described the attack as “cowardly” on two people who were “simply going about their daily business”.
“The potential for serious injury was definitely there, it was just fortunate enough he didn’t get close enough to do that,” Det-Sen. Sgt Bell, of the state security investigation group, said.
