A 43-year-old man has faced Wollongong Local Court charged with intimidation and driving in a dangerous manner and refused bail after allegedly threatening a picnicking family of 20 in a religiously motivated, unprovoked attack, NSW police said.
Just before 1pm on Sunday, police were called to the Bulli Tops Lookout, near Wollongong, following reports a man had threatened and yelled anti-Islamic sentiments at a family before driving around in circles just metres away from the group, which included young children.
The alleged offender, who is known to police, then left before returning and continuing to yell abuse.
"The family turned up and the offender turned on them. The family are quite shaken. The women at the time were crying and there were young kids there," Superintendent Chris Craner said at a press conference on Monday.
"These are serious offences and could have ended up in catastrophic circumstances."
Following a search of the car, police located a hammer and a knife.
Superintendent Craner declined to elaborate on what was said to the family but said at this point, it was believed to be an isolated attack.
"When you look at it, it is an isolated incident. It is something that this offender has done," he said.
"I can't say it won't happen in future in any sort of way. I haven't seen a rise in this [religiously motivated attacks]".
He said the NSW Police Force would continue to work with multicultural groups to ensure they are safe and feel safe.
“Our investigation is continuing, and given yesterday’s weather, we know the lookout was busy, so we’d like to speak with anyone who may have been in the area at the time," he added.
“In particular, we’d been keen to speak with anyone who has dashcam or mobile phone vision. Information can even be provided confidentially through Crime Stoppers."
