Australian police question man over tourist's death

Australian police on Friday questioned a 28-year-old man over the death of an Irish backpacker after the victim's mother made an emotional plea for his "unlucky" attacker to come forward.

A police spokeswoman said the man had come forward just hours after Gearoid Walsh's mother Tressa said she didn't want her son's assailant to "torture himself" or spend time in jail.

"He presented himself to Maroubra police station at about 4:30 pm this afternoon with legal representation," the spokeswoman told AFP. "He's currently assisting detectives with their enquiries."

Gearoid Walsh, 23, died overnight after he was assaulted in the Sydney beachside suburb of Coogee late Sunday in an argument in a takeaway kebab shop following a drinking session.

A man punched Walsh, causing the Irishman to stumble and fall and hit his head on the ground.

Tressa Walsh, who travelled to Australia to be with her critically ill son before he died, appealed for the attacker to come forward, saying her family did not see the death as murder but wanted to see the case closed.

"We don't want him to serve time in prison. I think he was just very, very unlucky," she told reporters in Sydney.

"We don't want him to torture himself over this. I don't see this as murder."

She added that said her son, who arrived here on a working visa, had only been in Australia for one month but that it had been the happiest time of his life.

The death follows the brutal beating of fellow Irishman David Keohane in Coogee in August 2008. Keohane spent weeks recovering in Sydney before being flown home to Ireland.