Within 24 hours of the attack on tourist Mia Ayliffe-Chung, police had all but ruled out radicalisation. By then the politicians had already said their piece

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The suggestion that a sleepy north Queensland sugar town with a population of 3,000 could be the site of a “lone wolf” jihadi attack was on the face of it preposterous.



One of countless stops on the so-called “harvest trail” trodden by backpackers on their Australian adventures, Home Hill is the kind of place where locals are hard-pressed to recall anything so violent as a killing in previous decades.

That was until one night of pandemonium at a backpackers hostel thrust the town of around 3,000 people into the global spotlight amid speculation it could feature on a growing list of deadly acts by lone wolf extremists.

Australian police charge man with murder of British backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung Read more

The alleged crimes by Smail Ayad, a French Algerian backpacker on his second visit to both Australia and Shelley’s Backpackers hostel, were shocking enough.

British tourist Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was left dead and her compatriot Thomas Jackson, 31, gravely wounded in an alleged stabbing spree in front of up to 30 horrified onlookers.

The lead Queensland police investigator, superintendent Ray Rohweder, said of CCTV footage of the alleged incident: “There’s no one that can view that CCTV that doesn’t come away feeling sick to the stomach. It’s just absolutely horrific.”

In a macabre twist, the resident hostel dog, an Alsatian named Atari, also died trying not to attack but to elude his alleged assailant.

Amid these disturbing scenes just after 11pm on Tuesday, it was one phrase allegedly uttered by Ayad, 29, that forced Queensland police to contemplate that an extremist motive could be at play.

Ayad’s alleged cries of “Allahu Akbar” – “God is greatest” in Arabic – both during the incident and upon his arrest by police wearing body cameras were the trigger for the Australian federal police to take a rare part in a state murder investigation.

The AFP vowed to pursue whatever lines of global inquiry were necessary to probe for any links to jihadi groups or motivations, as senior police said nothing was being ruled out, including mental health or drug misuse issues.

Home Hill, Queensland, Map Home Hill is north Queensland has a population of just over 3,000 people.

But within 24 hours, Queensland police had all but ruled out the possibility of the crime being the product of a radicalised individual. French nationals who witnessed the incident had already told police Ayad’s shouted speech was incoherent and nonsensical.

By Thursday lunchtime, with Ayad allegedly exploding in unpredictable violence in custody – including alleged serious assaults on 12 officers, one bitten on the leg – investigators were privately convinced the Home Hill tragedy had nothing to do with jihadi motives.

Rohweder said the French national underwent a psychiatric assessment upon his admission to hospital following his arrest but its conclusions could not be divulged.

Since Ayad’s arrest a number of Australian right-wing politicians seized on the one line of inquiry opened up by the alleged cries of “Allahu Akbar”.

This included federal government backbencher George Christensen, whose electorate contains Home Hill, the outspoken Queensland independent MP Bob Katter, and freshly-elected Queensland senator Pauline Hanson, whose One Nation party advocates a ban on Muslim immigration.

Christensen and Katter cited the tragedy in calling for a ban on Middle Eastern and north African migrants.

Hanson reissued calls for a moratorium on Muslim immigration, saying she was “not going to be silenced on yet another attack involving Islamic extremism – especially one occurring in the state I am representing in the Senate”.

There’ll be those that seek to exploit this incident Bill Byrne, police minister

Queensland’s police minister, Bill Byrne, condemned “opportunistic commentary” on extremism from “predictable sources” whose contributions were “highly speculative and unhelpful”.

“There’ll be those that seek to exploit this incident,” Byrne said. “What is required here is cool, calm and thoughtful consideration.”

Christensen later took to Facebook to criticise the “political correctness brigade”.

After Ayad was charged with a string of offences including murder and attempted murder on Thursday, Rohweder sought to emphasise there was “no indication whatsoever that any radicalisation or any political motives existed to cause him to attack the people that he did”.

Rohweder alleged police had obtained a consistent version of events from the many witnesses to the incident.

An emerging line of inquiry was an alleged romantic interest expressed by Ayad in Ayliffe-Chung, whom he had met just days earlier when she began sharing a room at the hostel with him and two others.



Ayliffe-Chung’s stint working on local vegetable farms in a bid to extend her working holiday visa had just begun. Ayad had been at the hostel for about a month.

Witnesses have told police Ayad had remarked he would marry the young Briton.

Just after 11pm on Tuesday, police allege Ayad took Ayliffe-Chung out onto a balcony at knifepoint and repeatedly stabbed her.

Ayad then allegedly wounded a hostel caretaker, Grant Shultz, who sought to intervene.

Ayad next launched himself off a stairwell and landed on his back, Rohweder alleged, in what he described as an “inexplicable” act.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flowers on a fence outside the Queensland hostel where British backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was fatally stabbed. Photograph: Roger Maynard/AFP/Getty Images

The Frenchman is accused of returning upstairs and stabbing Jackson in the face and torso. He had gone to Ayliffe-Chung’s aid in a bathroom.

Rohweder praised Jackson for his “fantastic” bravery, adding that he was still in a critical condition and in no position to speak to investigators.

The mayor of Burdekin shire, Lyn McLaughlin, told the Guardian that in her 40 years living in the area she could recall no killings in Home Hill and any suggestion of a terrorist act had been an appalling prospect for locals.

“However, in respect to the police, they needed to do their job and follow through on that and do their investigation – even though people’s initial reaction was they would never never have imagined that being possible,” she said.

“It’s enough of a tragedy and an unbelievable event that I don’t know how people would have coped if it had have been different.”

The backpackers are a part of our community, they’ve been with us for many years Lyn McLaughlin, local mayor

McLaughlin said she had not seen the detail of other politicians’ comments in the wake of the event but that “at a sad and tragic time like this, it’s just the wrong time for anyone to advance any of their other agendas or pursuits they might have”.

“I think first and foremost out of this whole tragedy is the sadness and sympathy and support we have to provide to the families and the backpackers that are there – and to the owners of the hostel,” McLaughlin said.

“The backpackers are a part of our community, they’ve been with us for many years and there’s thousands of them coming through and I want to reassure them they can feel safe.

“They need to know they’re welcome and they’re vital for our economy. Our horticulture industry relies on their being in our community.”

McLaughlin said she thought the Home Hill tragedy had “touched a lot of people because lots of people have children who travel now”.

“It’s different to years ago – now lots of families can relate to this incident because their children are overseas.”