A Perth teen who allegedly hit a 30-year-old Noongar woman in the head with a piece of concrete has been charged with murder following her death in hospital last Thursday.
Dianne Miller lost consciousness and entered cardiac arrest after a block was allegedly thrown into her car window and hit her in the head.
Several people attempted CPR before she was taken to Royal Perth Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit where she remained until she passed away on Thursday afternoon.
The 17-year-old was originally charged with grievous bodily harm and appeared before Perth Children’s Court last Wednesday according to NITV. But that charge has now been upgraded to murder. He is set to appear before Perth Children’s Court on Friday December 9.
Per NITV, it’s alleged the concrete was thrown into her car in a carpark in south Perth on Tuesday, November 29 following an alleged altercation between her partner and several teenagers.
The police believed the teens had gone to the Waterford Plaza shopping centre “looking for trouble” and had wound up in a fracas in the carpark, the ABC reported.
Her brother Malcolm Clifton spoke with NITV on Thursday, confirming Miller and her unborn child had died as a result of the injuries she sustained from the alleged attack.
“Everyone’s destroyed,” he said.
“We just lost our world… the baby passed away too.”
A candlelit vigil was held outside Royal Perth Hospital on Thursday evening by her family and Clifton said there has been a “big community response” following the alleged attack.
Per The Daily Mail, Inspector Brett Braddock said the teenagers and the couple were not known to each other.
“‘I put it down to quite simply [allegedly] senseless, unprovoked violence, which is unacceptable and we won’t tolerate it,’ he said.
Miller’s death comes less than three months after 15-year-old Cassius Turvey died after he was allegedly attacked on his way home from school and nine months after 16-year-old Jai Wright died after colliding with an unmarked police car in Sydney.
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