Sharrouf terrorist’s brother ‘like a monster’: alleged beaten woman
A woman allegedly savagely bashed by the brother of slain Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf has told a court Arken Sharrouf acted “like he was a monster” on the night of the alleged attack.
Police & Courts
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A woman who was allegedly savagely beaten by the brother of one of Australia’s most notorious terrorists has broken down as she recounted being drenched in her own blood, saying: “It was like he was a monster.”
Khaled Sharrouf’s brother Arken claims he was psychotic when he attacked the woman and shaved her head in south Sydney last year, believing he was possessed by the devil and she was a police informant.
The Crown alleges on July 2, 2019 Sharrouf choked and punched the woman before kicking her and stomping on her.
“With one punch I fell to the floor … I was very dizzy, I was under his feet. All I could feel was the pounding of his fist on my face,” the alleged victim said.
“My clothes were soaking wet. But it wasn’t water, it was blood.”
The woman tearfully told Sharrouf’s trial the 33-year-old steroid user ignored her pleas to stop as she drifted in and out of consciousness, and then he “went to the gym”.
Sharrouf’s alleged victim later staggered into a police station with a fractured left eye socket, broken ribs and two fractured vertebrae, and needed to be hospitalised for nine nights.
“It was like he was drunk or had taken something … because no one that is normal would hit a female like that,” the woman told Downing Centre District Court.
“The way he was looking at me was very scary, it was like he was a monster.”
Sharrouf is charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm, choking and intimidation, but has pleaded not guilty due to mental illness.
The previous day, Sharrouf allegedly hacked off the woman’s hair after he saw her brushing it.
The woman said Sharrouf angrily told her it was too long and “was upset because the hair was falling onto the floor”.
“It was like he had a mask on, it wasn’t him … I was crying and I was shaking from the way Arken was looking at me,” she said.
“He started hitting me everywhere and I kept saying to him ‘stop, stop, stop!’ And he wouldn’t stop.”
The alleged victim had initially testified she could not remember if the Peakhurst father did anything to her hair, which was hidden underneath a traditional Islamic hijab in court.
“Because of my religion, I should not state how long my hair was,” she said.
“I will not speak about my hair to anyone.”
The woman also said she told Sharrouf to cut her hair out of fear, and prosecutors flagged “extreme” concerns that by having to confront her alleged attacker via audio video link, she was being intimidated.
But the woman said: “I am not scared of Arken, I am only scared of God.”
The court heard Sharrouf had been unemployed at the time of the alleged attack but had previously held a job as a taxi driver, and also worked as a security guard at Sydney Airport sometime before 2011.
His brother Khaled travelled to Syria in 2013 and gained global notoriety while committing heinous war crimes in the self-proclaimed caliphate — all while collecting thousands of dollars from his Disability Support Pension for schizophrenia.
The court heard Sharrouf became depressed after his brother Khaled was killed in a US air strike in August 2017, and tried to self medicate by binging on alcohol.
Psychiatrist Dr Martin Reading has told the court Sharrouf stopped taking his schizophrenia medication weeks before the alleged assault because he’d gained more than 20 kilograms, and also raised sex drive issues with his doctor.
That GP prescribed him an anti-obesity amphetamine which “significantly worsens schizophrenia symptoms”, the court heard.
In September Sharrouf told his psychiatrist: “I can’t remember what happened, I got angry and blacked out.”
In January Sharrouf was hit with more than 70 additional charges for alleged ongoing abuse against a former partner between May 2007 and October 2008.
The trial continues.