‘Erica saved my life’

Support worker shoves teen out of way of alleged stabber

l CAIRNS ESPLANADE

| Isabella Guzman Gonzalez

A CAIRNS North support worker saved a teenager’s life after a Manunda man allegedly attacked the pair on a morning stroll on the Esplanade.

Support worker Erica Siepker and 17-year-old Cody Newman are still recovering from the shock of the incident when a 52-year-old Manunda man allegedly followed and attacked them with a pair of scissors, stabbing the young man on the right shoulder. They didn’t know the man.

Ms Siepker, who had only been working with the Newmans for a month, has been helping Mr Newman overcome so- cial anxiety. This was their first outing together on Tuesday, June 27.

“At first, we didn’t think he was talking to us,” Ms Siepker said.

“We were going for a walk on the Esplanade, and we walked past a guy who must’ve thought I said something to him because he yelled at us, but neither of us assumed he was talking to us,” she said.

“When we made it to the boardwalk, he was still yelling and had followed us. He had a pair of scissors, and he stabbed Cody and then came for me. I threw myself back to avoid getting stabbed.

“The first thing I saw was Cody getting stabbed in the shoulder, so my thought was ‘I don’t want this to be an overly traumatic experience for Cody’.”

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