Woman faces court charged with assaulting two Muslim women

A Melbourne woman has faced court over the assaults of two Muslim women last week.

Transcript

00:00The arrest of 31-year-old Pascoe Vale woman Susan Gnoulin came almost a week after she

00:07allegedly assaulted two Muslim women at the Pacific Epping Shopping Centre.

00:13Now she's been charged with intentionally and recklessly causing injury as well as unlawful

00:18and aggravated assault.

00:20She faced Melbourne's Magistrates Court around nine o'clock last night and was remanded in

00:25custody overnight but she's expected to face court again for that adjourned bail hearing.

00:31She's also undergone some forensics testing overnight but the Muslim community has been

00:36absolutely outraged following this incident.

00:40One of the victims was a 30-year-old pregnant woman and she told the ABC that she was out

00:45having lunch with a friend and four-year-old daughter when the accused came up from behind

00:50her, pulled her scarf and choked her with a hijab.

00:54Now she says that her four-year-old daughter sadly saw the whole incident take place and

00:58is now feeling incredibly traumatised as a result.

01:02Police say that about ten minutes later that same accused offender came up to a 26-year-old

01:08woman also wearing a hijab and allegedly punched and pushed her to the ground.

01:14As you can see she's suffered some severe bruising and scratches as a result.

01:18Now both women were taken to the Northern Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries

01:23but they've told the ABC they're now too scared to leave their homes alone.

01:27Now police say that they're treating these incidents as targeted because both women were

01:32wearing head coverings at the time.

01:34They say that they're also going to be investigating some alleged online threats levelled against

01:39one of those victims but the Muslim community now are really calling for authorities and

01:44politicians to do more to help combat the threats of Islamophobia in the community.