Attack shocks veteran’s mum

By Kelly Yates
THE mother of a Pakenham man who served in Iraq and Afghanistan says she is “shocked and angered” by an unprovoked attack over the weekend which left her son with an 8cm scar across his face.
Silvi May said her 27-year-old son Scott was recovering at home after a man slashed open his face with a box cutter in Melbourne on Saturday night.
Ms May, from Berwick, said she thought her son would be safe now he was back on home soil.
Mr May spent six months serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and won a Silver Commendation medal for trying to save a US army nurse during a bomb attack.
“We lived in dread during the time he was overseas, for that middle-of-the-night phone call to tell us he had been injured, or worse,” Ms May said.
“But instead we got that phone call on Saturday night, when he is home and just out for a good night.”
Ms May said the unknown man attacked her son from behind while he was walking in the city with his wife Larna and friends.
“The attacker didn’t say anything to him. He just randomly slashed him across the face,” she said.
“My other son was out with them too. So I had two sons and both daughters- in-law out that night. They are all now traumatised.”
Ms May said her son would have to live with the scar across his face, which runs from the corner of his mouth to his eye socket, and the constant reminder of the attack every time he looked in the mirror.
“You think that a night out in town would be safe as we live in a safe place, but it actually seems like it was safer for Scott overseas.”
Mr May was taken to hospital that night and had plastic surgery the following day.
“The police drove past and saw Scott covered in blood. If they were 10 seconds earlier they would have seen the attack,” Ms May said.
Mr May was discharged from the army late last year.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.