A father has been stabbed in the head and face after five masked intruders, including one armed with a machete, stormed his family home in one of Melbourne’s richest suburbs.
The 39-year-old man and his wife were asleep in their Kew East property when, just after 4am on Sunday, a gang of thugs allegedly forced their way into the Oxford Street home and dragged the terrified couple into separate rooms.
The father ‘put up a fight’ when he confronted the intruders, while the grandparents were also injured after trying to come to his aid.
‘The husband was then stabbed multiple times to the head, face and arms,’ Victoria Police said.
The mother was forced into the bedroom where her two young children were still in bed, while her husband was brutally attacked, with the intruders allegedly warning her not to step outside.
The father, left bleeding from horrific stab wounds, was rushed to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
His wife was treated at the scene for cuts and bruises.
Miraculously, the couple’s two toddlers, just two and three years old, were not harmed during the terrifying ordeal.
A father has been stabbed in the head and face after five masked intruders, including one armed with a machete, stormed his family home in Melbourne.
The grandparents, aged 69 and 70, were also caught up in the chaos and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A fifth adult in the house escaped without physical harm.
Four of the masked offenders fled in the victim’s luxury BMW, while a fifth escaped in the car they had arrived in.
The stolen BMW was later dumped on Christie Street in Deer Park. Police subsequently tracked down three of the alleged attackers on nearby Hamilton Street.
A 24-year-old man and two teenagers, aged just 16 and 17, were charged with a string of offences, including aggravated home invasion, intentionally causing serious injury, and false imprisonment.
Two other suspects remain on the run.
Boroondara Detective Sergeant Leanne Trussler was left shocked by the attacks.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ she said.
‘This is awful, a family, two adults, two children aged two and three, and the grandparents are sleeping in their home at nearly 4 o’clock in the morning.
‘The house is secure, they’re meant to be safe, and they’ve woken up and been treated like this.
The father ‘put up a fight’ when he confronted the intruders, while the grandparents were also injured after trying to come to his aid
‘It’s their home, or their castle, as they say. You should be safe, you shouldn’t be disrespected in your home and having people come in at that time of night and doing that to your family.’
She said the 39-year-old victim remained in hospital and would require surgery.
‘He has a fractured left arm, he has a number of cuts all over his face and he is going to need surgery on his eye,’ Detective Sergeant Trussler said.
‘The grandparents have also been assessed by doctors and released.’
