A woman who allegedly attacked two Muslim women at a Melbourne shopping centre has been granted bail, despite police telling the court her criminal history constituted 130 charges including an attack on a woman wearing a hijab.
Suzan Gonulalan, 31, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday evening charged with intentionally and recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault and aggravated assault of two women at the Pacific Epping shopping centre last week.
Police allege two women were targeted because they were wearing head coverings.
Police allege Gonulalan attacked two women wearing hijabs at the shopping centre in Melbourne’s northern suburbs in separate incidents on February 13, leaving both traumatised and fearful of being in public.
The court heard the accused woman, from Pascoe Vale, was on bail at the time. Police told the magistrate Gonulalan had a history of offences including threats to kill and contravention of a family violence order that made her an unacceptable risk to the community.
“[Gonulalan] was walking past when she … approached the [first] victim from behind and pulled at her hijab,” police sergeant Leanne Parfett told the court. “The victim was extremely fearful due to being heavily pregnant.
“As the accused is walking away, she continued shouting abuse while saying, ‘Shut up, shut up bitch.’”
The victim’s two young daughters, who were with her at the time, were upset by the incident, police said.
They said Gonulalan then walked around the shopping centre before approaching another woman – Ealaf Al-Esawie – and allegedly “slapped her” and pushed her, “causing the victim to fall on her back”.
Both incidents lasted no longer than five seconds and were captured on CCTV.
Parfett told the court the attacks had “caused outrage among the Muslim community” and that “the victims have personally expressed their concerns for their personal safety”.
In opposing bail, she said Gonulalan had previously been convicted for attacking a woman in a hijab in 2020.
In that incident, Gonulalan had bumped into the woman while leaving a health clinic and tried to strike her with a chair, the court heard. She had also prevented a receptionist from calling police, smacking the phone out of her hand.
For that assault and other previous offences, Gonulalan was in August 2021 sentenced to a community corrections order for 12 months, the court heard.
In granting Gonulalan bail on Thursday, magistrate Justin Foster said he believed any potential sentence imposed against her might be shorter than the length of time she would spend on remand.
He said Gonulalan was considered a vulnerable adult under the Bail Act, as she had mental health disorders that had developed after a car crash when she was 21.
Foster said that while there was a risk of her reoffending, it could be mitigated.
“I think there is a risk … but I think that the risk can be properly ameliorated,” he said.
Under the terms of her bail, Gonulalan will be required to report once a week to Broadmeadows police station, engage with a court integrated services program, abide by a family violence order imposed earlier this year and not attend Pacific Epping shopping centre.
With Cassandra Morgan