Two women have appeared in a Queensland court charged with the serious assault of a partially blind man on a Gold Coast bus.
Lana Janet Watmough, 21, and Layni Gloria Cameron, 17, faced Southport magistrates court on Saturday on charges of assault and public nuisance.
The pair, from New South Wales, handed themselves into police after footage of the incident showing two women bashing and racially vilifying Paul Buttigieg, 77, was posted online, leading to media reports.
Watmough, whose father was in the courtroom, was granted bail and will return to court on 23 April.
Cameron wept as she was brought into the dock and no application for bail was made during her brief appearance.
Cameron will return to court on 23 April. Her lawyer said she would make a final decision on whether to apply for bail after further consultation with her parents.
A video, filmed by a 13-year-old girl on the bus on Tuesday, shows two young women punching, kicking and spitting at the man.
One woman can be heard saying to the victim: “Oh bro, we’re in Abo land.”
After the assault the elderly man can be heard telling other passengers that he couldn’t see his attackers because he is partially blind. The victim, also from New South Wales, made a statement to police on Friday and said he wanted to press charges.
Similar incidents on public transport in Australia have been filmed and posted online previously.
In June, New South Wales police charged a 55-year-old woman over a video showing a schoolboy being racially vilified on a bus in Burwood in April.
Another video showed a pregnant woman being called a “fat slut” after she asked a Perth train passenger to move her bags so she could sit down.
In November 2012, a French woman on a Melbourne bus was told to “speak English or die” by a man who also threatened to cut her breasts off.