A TEENAGER living with disabilities has suffered bruises and a black lip in an alleged unprovoked attack near Kotara Westfield.
Walking down Lexington Parade at lunchtime on Tuesday, February 27, the 16-year-old had her earphones in and was talking to her mother on the phone.
She was heading towards the Coles service station where her mum was waiting to give her a lift to TAFE and next thing she knew her hair was being pulled.
"There was a group of kids, a girl came running down and she came from behind," the teenager said.
"She pulled my hair and had my arm with her other hand and started laying in to the side of my face and kicking me, she hit me in the temple a few times."
Helpless and scared, the teen screamed "get the f*** of me, stop f***ing doing this".
"It was the only thing I could say I just put my hands up to protect myself and after they ran off I was screaming my mum's name," she said.
Her mother said it was a "blood-curdling yell" from her daughter, who she initially thought had been hit by a car when the phone dropped out.
"She was talking to us and the next minute I heard screaming, I thought she'd been hit by a car," she said.
Following the scuttled phone call, she drove just 200 metres down the road and caught a glimpse of kids running off into the shopping centre before finding her daughter bruised and battered.
"It was so scary and very traumatic," the mother said. "She had blood from her nose and her mouth."
Newcastle police attended the incident and inquiries are ongoing.
Fortunately four strangers came to her daughter's aid and called the police and ambulance.
"I don't know who they are but thank you. It was a lot for a mother to deal with and take it in and they did that for me," she said.
The teenager lives with autism, ADHD and dyslexia and struggles with her independence which her mum said has now been "stripped away".
"This has messed up her routines, she is so up and down. We need to try to build her back up," the teenager's mother said.
"We've been working on getting her to catch buses on her own but now she's refused to do it. It's [the attack] pushed her back to square one basically and she is really sad."
"I don't understand why someone would want to hurt her, she doesn't have the biggest group of friends and she's not a typical 16-year-old, she is quiet and friendly to everyone."
Her daughter had her airpods, iPad, Apple watch and phone on her but nothing was stolen.
"At least if something was stolen we could try understand and make sense of it," she said.
"Why did they hit me? Why did I get attacked," her daughter said.
Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
