NSW: Mobile phone could help identify bashing victim

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2006
NSW: Mobile phone could help identify bashing victim

SYDNEY, Feb 1 AAP - Police have ruled out a racial motive for the bashing of a teenager
they believe is Sudanese, who was left for dead on a street near a mosque in Sydney's
west last night.

Police today said the victim was aged between 16 and 18, and the names listed in his
mobile phone led them to believe he might be Sudanese.

"There's a mosque in the street but police don't believe that's connected to the assault,"

a NSW Police spokeswoman said.

"There's nothing they know of to link the two."

Officers went to Harrow Road, Auburn, shortly before midnight (AEDT) after reports
of a male youth being assaulted by as many as three men.

The victim, whose identity is not known, was found unconscious and admitted to Westmead
Hospital with critical head injuries.

"(Investigators) are going through his mobile phone and trying to contact the names
listed in it to try to find out who he is," the police spokeswoman said.

The victim was not carrying a passport but was not thought to be in the country illegally,
she said.

The teenager's attackers were described as being of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean appearance.

AAP dcr/nf/jm

KEYWORD: BASHED LEAD

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