The mother of a Canadian wheelchair-bound man punched, stomped and beaten with a metal bar at a Sydney railway station says she is "devastated".
The vicious attack, captured on security video, has made headlines across Canada.
"I can't believe a human being would do that to someone else," Shellan Proden told the Canadian Press from her home outside the Canadian city of Winnipeg.
"It's like a savage."
Two boys, aged 15 and 16, have been charged with robbery and assault offences.
Proden's 35-year-old son, whose name has not been released, was holidaying in Australia when the attack occurred on Tuesday night.
He has been in a wheelchair for 10 years following a snowmobile accident.
NSW police said he was waiting at the Mount Druitt train station in Sydney's west after watching a friend's band play a concert at the Rooty Hill RSL when the two youths approached and punched him in the face while he attempted to roll into a station lift.
He fell out of his wheelchair, was stomped on and bashed on the head with a metal bar wrenched from his wheelchair, causing a depressed skull wound and severe cuts, police said.
The victim has undergone surgery for his head wounds and is in a stable condition in Sydney's Westmead Hospital.
Tragedy has shadowed the Prodens.
The same year the 35-year-old had the snowmobile accident that put him in a wheelchair, his father was killed in a snowmobile accident.
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