Incredible act of forgiveness from the grieving mum of slain backpacker

The mother of slain backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung has revealed her moment of “connection and understanding” for the “broken man” who killed her daughter.
In a 1000-word Facebook post on Thursday, mother Rosie Ayliffe detailed her compassion for Smail Ayad, after a Brisbane court ruled he was of an “unsound mind”.
After looking at his knees for the entirety of the proceedings from inside a large glass box, Ayad met her eyes after she told the court his “realisation” of his actions was worse than any possible punishment, Ms Ayliffe wrote.
“At that point he looked at me, and we stared at each other in silence for a count of three.”
Ms Ayliffe said she had yearned for that moment after flying “halfway around the world” from Derbyshire in the United Kingdom to provide a witness statement at the Brisbane court.
“I felt that the fact I refused to vent about hating him had made an impact,” she wrote.
“It’s only through those moments of connection and understanding, when you get a moment of insight into the mind of another being, that change can be initiated.”
On Thursday, the Mental Health Court remanded Ayad to a mental health facility and discontinued criminal proceedings after psychiatrists diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia.
The 30-year-old French national had been charged with 16 offences, including the murder of 21-year-old Mia Ayliffe-Chung and 30-year-old Tom Jackson at a backpackers hostel in the town of Home Hill, south of Townsville in August 2016.
The court heard Ayad, who smoked up to four joints of cannabis a day for years, was under the delusion farmers and hostel staff wanted to kill him and would burn his body in a pizza oven.
In the Facebook post, the grieving Ms Ayliffe said she had initially stormed out of the courtroom angry at the verdict, convinced the proceedings were not only a “waste of time”, but also a “set-up” for Ayad to avoid a criminal trial.
“I was at the point of implicating the Turnbull administration, the French government and the UK High Commission and then I suddenly realised what was happening to me,” she wrote.
“I was becoming Ayad.
“I was developing a paranoid, delusional conspiracy theory in my head which was taking me along the path he trod.
“So I stopped, and I reconnected with who I am, and who Mia was.”
The court heard Ayad dragged Ms Ayliffe’s daughter from her bed at the Home Hill hostel and stabbed her multiple times in a “psychotic episode”.
The hostel manager tried to stop Ayad, but was stabbed in the leg before the 30-year-old murderer jumped headfirst from the first-floor balcony, sustaining neck and back fractures.
Ayad then proceeded to stab the hostel owner’s dog before returning to Ms Ayliffe-Chung’s bedroom and again stabbed Tom Jackson as he tried to help the 21-year-old woman.
The Brisbane ruling follows Rosie Ayliffe’s campaign for better protections for temporary visa holders, like her daughter, who work and holiday in Australia.
Ms Ayliffe declined The New Daily‘s offer of an interview, saying she was too exhausted by the ordeal of the court hearings.