Twenty-nine-year-old Smail Ayad was expected to be charged with stabbing Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, multiple times late Tuesday at a backpacker’s hostel in Home Hill, a rural town in north Queensland state.
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He’s been charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, one count of serious animal cruelty and 12 counts of serious assault.
The 12 serious assaults he has been charged with are in relation to 12 separate police officers. The majority of these incidents occured on Monday night when detectives arrived at Shelley’s Backpackers to arrest the suspect.
Ayad, 29, is accused of murdering British backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung at a backpackers on Tuesday night and critically injuring another British man, Tom Jackson.
Ayliffe-Chung had spent six months working as a waitress at a nightclub on the Gold Coast, 800 miles away, but needed to spend three months doing regional work in order to extend her working holiday visa.
However, Superintendent Rohweder today confirmed police had found no evidence the attack was a case of religious extremism.
“There has been no indication whatsoever that any radicalisation or any political motives existed that caused him to attack the people that he did”, Supt Rohweder told reporters Thursday. He remains in Townsville Base Hospital with critical head injuries.
Ayad remained in Townsville watch house for the hearing after police cited public safety concerns.
Superintendent Ray Rohweder of Queensland Police had previously said the possibility that Ayad had an unrequited romantic interest or an “obsession” with Miss Ayliffe-Chung was a line of inquiry.
Superintendent Rohweder said: “The scene that confronted police was bad”.
Mr Jackson was stabbed as he tried to rescue Miss Ayliffe-Chung by shielding her from the blows.
In a statement read by her partner Stewart Cormack, the victim’s mother Rosie Ayliffe said that her daughter was “full of the kind of open-minded compassion for life that you don’t see that often”.
He is facing more than a dozen charges related to the bloody crime, in which he also seriously injured two British men who jumped in to try to save the struggling Ayliffe-Chung.
Mr Jackson and Mr Scholz, the manager of the Home Hill Backpackers, about 100 kilometres south of Townsville, have been labelled heroes for their roles in trying to thwart the alleged attack.
British High Commissioner to Australia Menna Rawlings was in Home Hill, near Townsville, to provide support to Britons involved in the attack. “Deep sympathy to all affected”.
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“He has had access to legal representation and he has had access to the French Consulate but my information is (Ayad) has declined to be interviewed”.
