Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Hero Frenchman ‘bollard man’ offered Australian citizenship

The hero Frenchman hailed as 'bollard man' for his role tackling the assailant during the Sydney shopping centre attack has been told by the country's president that he is "welcome to Australian citizenship".

Published: 16 April 2024 10:25 CEST
Hero Frenchman 'bollard man' offered Australian citizenship
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (2nd L), leaving flowers outside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall in Sydney on April 14, 2024, the day after the stabbing attack.(Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP)

Frenchman Damien Guerot helped tackle the assailant who killed six people in an attack on a Sydney shopping mall, earning his nickname after CCTV footage of him surfaced brandishing a bollard.

Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced that Guerot could stay in Australia “as long as he would like” after his heroic feat.

“I say this to Damien – who is dealing with his visa applications – that you are welcome here, you are welcome to stay for as long as you like,” Albanese said during a press conference on Tuesday. 

“This is someone who we would welcome becoming an Australian citizen, although that would of course be a loss for France,” the prime minister added.

French president Emmanuel Macron also commemorated Guerot for his efforts, noting that he did not act alone.

“Two of our compatriots acted like real heroes. We are very proud and grateful”, Macron said on X, the former Twitter, also sending his condolences to the Australian people.

Macron reposted a message from Pierre-Andre Imbert, France’s ambassador to Australia, who identified the French nationals as Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot and said they “showed great courage in trying to stop the attacker.”

Guerot began to be recognised for his bravery after CCTV footage surfaced of him confronting the attacker.

As the assailant tried to make his way up an escalator, the video showed Guerot standing guard at the top with a bollard, which earned him the nickname ‘Bollard man’ in Australia.

Mr Despreaux also confronted the assailant with a bollard during the attack, and the two Frenchman are believed to have helped lead police to his location.

“I just thought, we need something to catch him (…) We didn’t think, you cannot think in that moment. It’s just like adrenaline. His eyes were like empty eyes, he wasn’t there,” Guerot told the Australian press afterwards.

Six people were killed in the attack – five women and one man, a security guard originally from Pakistan – and dozens more injured before police officer Amy Scott shot and killed the assailant. 

Australian police are reportedly investigating whether the 40-year-old attacker intended to target women specifically.

A Change.org petition was also launched on Saturday night, calling for Guerot to be granted Australian citizenship. 

“He is a hero and we need people like this in our country,” one signatory wrote.

This is not the first time the bravery of a foreigner has been rewarded with extended residency or promises of citizenship in that country.

In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would grant citizenship to ‘Le Spiderman’, Mamoudou Gassama, a 22-year-old undocumented immigrant in France, who carried out a spectacular rescue of a four-year-old who was dangling from a balcony in Paris.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Man jailed after dismembered body found under Paris bridge

A man has been indicted for aggravated murder and remanded in custody after a dismembered body reportedly stuffed into a suitcase was found under a bridge in Paris at the weekend, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Published: 15 May 2024 15:29 CEST
Man jailed after dismembered body found under Paris bridge

The dismembered body was found on Saturday evening under the Pont d’Austerlitz by firefighters who had come to put out a rubbish fire. The suspect turned himself in the following morning.

The man, born in 1989, had reportedly said the victim was a disabled person for whom he was a carer and with whom he had had a dispute.

The suspect, who the Paris public prosecutor’s office said had incriminated himself and had been questioned in police custody, appeared before an investigating judge on Tuesday.

He was charged with voluntary manslaughter of a vulnerable person, punishable by life imprisonment, and causing bodily harm. He was then remanded in custody, said the public prosecutor.

The suspect’s lawyer, Emanuel de Dinechin, told AFP that “it is not yet possible to determine the exact circumstances of the crime at this stage.”

“It will be up to the investigators to shed light on the material and psychological elements that came into play when the crime was committed,” he said.

The dismembered body was reportedly found in a suitcase. The place where it was found is frequented by homeless people.

French daily Le Parisien said the pair met a few months ago, and the suspect began to look after a quadriplegic, who was in his 50s. At first, things went well, but an altercation between the two turned tragic, the newspaper said.

For nearly two months, the carer kept the corpse under the bed, Le Parisien said.

When the smell became unbearable, he cut up the body with a saw, stuffed the pieces into a suitcase and dropped it off at the foot of the Pont d’Austerlitz before setting it on fire.

According to the newspaper, the body of an “adult male” was missing “upper and lower limbs”.

“The body was complete, but in several pieces,” Le Parisien quoted a source close to the case as saying.

The suspect killed the disabled man with his bare hands and multiple injuries were found on the victim’s body, said Le Parisien.

Last year the dismembered body of a woman was found in the Buttes-Chaumont park in northeast Paris, a popular spot for picnicking families and joggers.

The woman’s husband admitted to killing her and was charged with spousal murder. The couple were married for 26 years and had three children.

SHOW COMMENTS