A young Brisbane mum has told of the terrible moment she looked around and saw a stranger pour hot coffee on her nine-month-old son's head, minutes after laying out a park picnic rug.
In the chaotic scenes that followed, the screaming baby's skin began to blister as the alleged attacker fled with one of the woman's friends in pursuit.
The scalding of the child happened so fast, the mother says she barely got a look at the "strange man".
Police are hoping someone who knows the alleged attacker will recognise him from enhanced images they released on Thursday and come forward.
Two new pictures are now available, with police previously releasing CCTV footage of a man running away after a "terrifying" incident at Hanlon Park, Stones Corner on Tuesday afternoon.
The boy's parents also issued a plea for someone to find the "sick freak" who allegedly poured the Thermos of coffee on their boy.
"This man needs to be found and charged," the mother posted online.
The parents are still traumatised by the alleged attack after the child suffered burns to his face and chest, undergoing surgery.
He remains in hospital in a stable condition.
"Luckily (my son) is young and he probably won’t remember any of this but we will and this is something we’re going to have to carry forever,” the mother told Brisbane Times.
"I’m not even sure how I’m going to ever go to a park or anywhere with (my son) feeling safe again."
The mother said "some guy" poured hot coffee on him just 10 minutes after they had set up a midday picnic in the park with a friend and her baby.
"I don’t know who would think that’s okay to harm an innocent little baby," she told Nine Network.
"A sick freak," the father then said.
The mother claimed she was suffering constant flashbacks about the alleged attack which she said came "out of nowhere".
"I don’t even know who he is or why this happened," she told the Brisbane Times.
"I'm anxious and worried that he’s going to hurt someone else again, or hurt us again."
The mother said her friend ran after the man but he got away.
A woman organising a GoFundMe page for the baby said she was the friend who was with the mother during the alleged attack.
The woman said she was sitting down with her own son at the picnic when she looked up and saw a stranger suddenly standing over the nine-month-old.
"This man ... poured a Thermos of hot coffee over him. He (baby) just started screaming,” she told Network Ten.
She said she tried to pursue the "very fast" man as he fled but she tripped.
"Essentially all I could hear was his mum screaming ... ‘It’s hot, it’s hot coffee’," the woman said.
"We laid him down on the picnic rug and we peeled his clothes away ... his skin had started to blister."
She said bystanders quickly filled bottles of water to pour over the distressed baby before a nurse took them to her nearby apartment and placed the nine-month-old under a shower.
"It was chaotic,” the woman said.
Her GoFundMe page had raised almost $56,000 by Thursday afternoon.
Police said identifying the man in their new images and CCTV footage was critical to their investigation.
The man was wearing glasses, a shirt, shorts and a black hat.
He is believed to be aged 30 to 40 with a proportionate build and tanned skin.
