Teen arrested over attack on autistic boy

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested over the attack on an autistic boy outside a Melbourne high school.

Victorian police have arrested a teenager over the attack on an autistic boy.

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested over the attack on an autistic boy outside a Melbourne high school.

14 year-old Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins was set upon by five boys with metal wrenches outside the school on Tuesday.

No charges have yet been laid, police confirmed today.

Earlier, the mother of the autistic boy said her son had come out of the ordeal stronger than ever.

Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, said she worries about her son’s mental health after the incident but has been surprised about how philosophical he has been about the assault.

“He’s compartmentalised it. Of course, I’m worried about his mental health ... but he’s been quite philosophical about it, he’s very justice-driven,” she said.

“He thinks he did the right thing by telling these boys to stop bullying his friend.”

Further details of the assault have been unveiled this morning. Quinn had confronted the boys who had been bullying his friend on social media.

They invited them to the school where they proceeded to attack him.

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins told The Australian she wants to see the boys charged but she also feels concerned for them.

“I do feel concerned about these boys ... we need to understand why young people would do something like this,” she said.

“And I feel very concerned about their parents, I can’t imagine what they are going through.”

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said her son wants the assault to shine a light on both bullying and continued discrimination against autistic people.

Quinn’s mother is currently talking with community advocates and plans to co-host a community meeting in Northcote about bullying.

“Some people think this is just schoolyard bullying ... I just can’t accept that,” Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said.

“We let our kids act like this, absorb this over-macho culture, it will be the harbinger of our doom.

“Our institutions are letting us down. Schools don’t have the funding to deal with issues like mental health in our young boys.”

The mother-son duo also want Australians to talk more about how autistic people are treated in this country. Ms Lahiff-Jenkins fears that acceptance of people with autism is going backwards.

“Autistic people are the third biggest minority group in the world ... the community has to start accepting them in their schools and workplaces,” she said.

“There is a very long way to go when it comes to acceptance, I fear it’s going backwards.”

Autistic boy kicked, beaten with wrenches

An autistic boy has been brutally beaten up with wrenches outside a high school in Melbourne’s north.

Disturbing video footage ­obtained by the Herald Sun yesterday shows 14-year-old Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins being attacked by five other boys outside Northcote High School on Tuesday.

He was pinned to the ground and bashed as motorists drove by.

Quinn was grabbed off his bike and kicked in the head by one youth, while another hit his legs with a wrench. When he got to his feet, a boy grabbed his head again and kneed him.

The footage showed the boys subsequently attacking him with wrenches and chasing him towards traffic. They pinned him down again and kicked him in the head.

One boy in a grey top tried to stop the attack but was set upon by one of the others with a wrench. “You got a problem? You got a problem?” the wrench-wielding teen reportedly said to the boy who tried to intervene.

The Herald Sun reports Quinn had confronted the bullies because they had attacked him earlier with homophobic slurs and threats against his mother.

He was still in Melbourne’s Austin Hospital last night.

His mother, Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, said he was still terrified.

She learnt of the attack after Quinn called her from an ­ambu­lance.

“There are marks on his body but mental health is the biggest issue,” she told the Herald Sun.

Earlier, Ms Lahiff-Jenkins tweeted: “It’s so hard to be a teenage boy, let alone grapple with the social weight of autism without being targeted by bullies.”

Quinn had been in the mainstream school system for only a year, having previously attended special schools. It is believed he had started to make friends but was being bullied.

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins told the Herald Sun she would pursue criminal charges against her son’s attackers.

Victoria Police is investigating.