Police allege teen spent hour on bus to stab Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel

New details have emerged of a teenager’s movements before he allegedly stabbed a bishop at a Sydney church. It comes as police charged another man allegedly involved in the riot outside the church after the incident.

A teenager is believed to have travelled for more than an hour by bus to a Sydney church where he allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.

Police will allege the 16-year-old boy who lives in Western Sydney travelled for nearly 90 minutes on Monday, as trains were replaced by buses, from his home to the church at Wakeley to carry out the horrifying attack.

The teen is accused of attacking the 53-year-old bishop and another priest during a livestreamed service at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church on Monday.

A large crowd soon gathered outside the church, which erupted into a violent confrontation between police during which the rioters damaged multiple patrol cars and lobbed bricks and stones at officers.

On Friday, officers investigating the public order incident arrested a 45-year-old man at a Fairfield Heights home and later charged him with riot, and threaten violence and cause fear. He was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.

The attack on the bishop was livestreamed. Picture: Christ the Good Shepherd Church

The teenage boy accused of attacking the bishop and priest, who cannot be identified, was restrained by parishioners and was later transported to hospital, where he has remained, having ­apparently severed his own finger in the scuffle.

Police shut down rumours that the boy’s flick knife didn’t open as he allegedly struck the priest, with NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb saying police will allege he did in fact stab the bishop six times.

He has been charged with a Commonwealth offence for terrorism.

Hundreds of people turned up outside the church after the attack on the bishop and priest.

As part of the “complex and ongoing investigation” by the Joint Counter Terrorism Team, investigators are now trawling through the boy’s electronic devices seized from his home.

“People have thousands and thousands of videos and images that they store and also what we find on social media,” AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said.

“The Joint Counter Terrorism Team will go through all of that material forensically to establish what the other avenues of inquiry are, but also evidence going to the charge.”

The case against the 16-year-old boy was mentioned briefly in Parramatta Children’s Court for the first time yesterday morning while the teen remained under guard in hospital.

He did not appear via videolink and was represented by barrister Greg Scragg.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw. Picture: Jeremy Piper

A police officer injured in the riot outside the church.

The matter is due back in court in June but Mr Scragg flagged that it may return to court sooner to address the issue of psychological assessment.

In response to community concerns that the stabbing was declared an act of terrorism, while the Bondi massacre was not, Mr Kershaw said an act of terrorism “has to be political, religious or ideologically motivated by extremism” with a view to furthering the cause.

“Those elements met in our view,” he said, reinforcing that the job of law enforcement was to “target criminality not countries, we investigate radicalisation and not religion”.

The two top cops called out social media platforms for allowing the posting of graphic videos of the attack.

“I agree leading a social media platform should bring with it a big social corporate responsibility,” Commissioner Webb said.

“Images like that … they need to be removed immediately and not left up there.”

Commissioner Kershaw added: “Unfortunately the internet, while it’s a great place for learning and understanding it’s also got a lot of garbage on it.

“There are mechanisms in Australia but we are really encouraging big companies to do the right thing … and take that material off the internet.”

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]