A heart emoji in a WhatsApp group allegedly sparked a wild brawl between two Middle Eastern refugee families in Sydney’s immigrant-majority western suburbs.
Bricks, knives and wooden sticks were allegedly used in the fight which erupted at about 5pm on Monday in Fairfield, where just 6.9% of the population are of Australian ancestry.
One of the men, a father-of-six now in hospital with head and facial injuries, had reacted with a heart emoji on a photo of a family friend’s wife in a group chat that was allegedly mistaken as inappropriate, Nine News reported.
That man’s family said the rival group was waiting for them outside their home when they returned from the shops, and allegedly used bricks from their front yard to attack them.
Two men aged 38 and 53 – refugees from Jordan and Syria – and two teenage males were arrested and charged.
The two teenagers and the 53-year-old man were charged with affray and being armed with intent to commit indictable offences, while the younger man was charged with affray.
All appeared in court on Tuesday where they were released on strict conditional bail.
Asked how he felt about the charges as he was leaving court, one of the teenagers said: “I don’t speak English.”
A 21-year-old man was also arrested after being taken to hospital in a stable condition along with a 40-year-old man. Neither of the injured men have been charged.
