Wakeley accused terror teen ‘obsessively trawled internet’: Mother claims

The mother of a teenage boy charged with a terror offence after he allegedly knifed a bishop six times in a Sydney church claims he would lock himself in his room and became fixated with the internet.

The mother of a teenage boy charged with a terror offence after he allegedly knifed a prominent bishop six times has revealed how her son locked himself in his room for long periods and obsessively trawled the internet.

The 16-year-old boy, who was expelled from a western Sydney school six-months ago, had been diagnosed with anger management issues, had become withdrawn and was spending prolonged amounts of time in his bedroom on his computer.

Muslim community leader Dr Jamal Rifi told The Daily Telegraph the boy’s distressed mother is now hopeful NSW Police counter terrorism investigators will get some answers about who or what led her son to allegedly attack Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel last Monday, when they go through his computer and phone which were seized.

The teenager approached Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel during mass before stabbing him multiple times.

The boy is accused of attacking the 53-year-old bishop inside Christ the Good Shepherd Church during a service that was being live streamed. The horrifying footage has gone around the world.

Dr Rifi said the boy’s mother claimed she did not see any “red flags” in his behaviour leading up to the incident.

“What his mother has told me is that he was surfing the internet a lot, and she wonders if someone used his mental vulnerability to put some ideas in his head,” Dr Rifi said.

The mother claims her son, one of three children in the family, struggled with “bursts of anger” since he was in year seven at high school.

The 16-year-old with a bandaged hand after being arrested by police.

School counsellors had been involved with the boy, as well as at least three private psychologists and he was due to see a psychiatrist before the appointment was cancelled when the doctor had to go overseas.

“His mother had been trying to get him as much help and support as she could...this really is a terrible, tragic incident,” Dr Rifi said.

When the boy’s father, a taxi driver, saw the alleged attack on social media, he was in a “state of shock”.

“He was in disbelief, incoherent...he drove in his car for about four hours to collect his thoughts,” Dr Rifi said.

Muslim community leader Dr Jamal Rifi. Picture: Chris Pavlich

A woman, believed to be the boy’s mother, left a home in Greenacre last week.

A NSW Police source confirmed the boy’s mother had made detectives aware of his recent obsessive behaviour on the internet, and that his online activity was a line of inquiry.

Parishioners were forced to restrain the boy until police arrived. He was taken to hospital where he remains under police guard.

Dr Rifi said the boy’s mother had visited him to ‘show support’, but she hadn’t probed what lead to the alleged attack.

“She wants that to be left to the investigators...she said he is very remorseful, very apologetic”.

The family has not returned to their western Sydney home since the alleged attack, citing fears for their safety.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said police were still trawling through hours of vision from the night of the alleged attack which sparked a 2000-strong riot on the street outside, but she warned officers would ‘come knocking’ for anyone found to have broken the law.

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