Coronial inquest into 2024 incident also told killer had ‘preoccupation with death and murder’ before fatally stabbing six peopleElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe man who fatally stabbed six people in a Sydney shopping centre last April had a “preoccupation with death and murder” and made online searches for serial killers and the Columbine school shooters in the days before his attack, a court has heard.The court also heard that at the moment the attack began, the sole CCTV security room operator had been using the bathroom and re-entered the CCTV room less than two minutes later, towards the end of Cauchi’s stabbing rampage.Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Continue reading…Coronial inquest into 2024 incident also told killer had ‘preoccupation with death and murder’ before fatally stabbing six peopleElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe man who fatally stabbed six people in a Sydney shopping centre last April had a “preoccupation with death and murder” and made online searches for serial killers and the Columbine school shooters in the days before his attack, a court has heard.The court also heard that at the moment the attack began, the sole CCTV security room operator had been using the bathroom and re-entered the CCTV room less than two minutes later, towards the end of Cauchi’s stabbing rampage.Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Continue reading…
The man who fatally stabbed six people in a Sydney shopping centre last April had a “preoccupation with death and murder” and made online searches for serial killers and the Columbine school shooters in the days before his attack, a court has heard.
The court also heard that at the moment the attack began, the sole CCTV security room operator had been using the bathroom and re-entered the CCTV room less than two minutes later, towards the end of Cauchi’s stabbing rampage.
Joel Cauchi killed Ashlee Good, 38; Jade Young, 47; Yixuan Cheng, 27; Pikria Darchia, 55; Dawn Singleton, 25; and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April 2024 before he was shot and killed by police inspector Amy Scott.
On the first day of the five-week coronial inquest into the incident, senior counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC said police had reviewed Cauchi’s phone and web browsing records, which were “distressing” and demonstrated Cauchi was a person who was “extremely unwell” and preoccupied with mass killing and violence.
Cauchi, from Toowoomba in Queensland, was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and had been sleeping rough on Maroubra beach on the morning of the attack, she said. He had been using cannabis in the days before the attack, which would have likely exacerbated his psychotic symptoms, the court heard.
Dwyer told New South Wales state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan the events of that day may have been the subject of “rudimentary planning” by Cauchi, with notes on his phone from January and February 2024 suggesting he was planning a strike or attack. But, apart from providing an “insight into [Cauchi’s] inner turmoil and dark thoughts”, there was no direct evidence indicating a motive for the attack.
The court heard Cauchi’s schizophrenia was appropriately managed from the age of 17 to about 36, but by the time of the attack, he had been unmedicated for five years. He was “effectively lost to follow up”, Dwyer said.
“How that happened and what could have been done differently are key issues in this inquest,” she said.
During that time, he appeared to have sought a gun licence and had obtained a “statement of eligibility” to join a pistol club. Evidence shows “he did not follow through with a gun licence and that is very, very fortunate”, Dwyer said.
She said the inquest did not seek to stigmatise those living with schizophrenia, but that it was “an unavoidable fact” that a small number of homicides are committed by people with psychiatric illnesses.
Cauchi’s parents – who had in 2023 communicated with police about their concern about their son’s collection of hunting knives – contacted the police after seeing him on news reports on the evening of the attack.
Dwyer said the level of Westfield shopping centre’s preparedness for an active armed offender would be central to the proceedings.
Cauchi began his attack at 3.32pm, but it wasn’t until 3.52pm that an emergency announcement to the public and staff within Westfield was made, well after Cauchi had been shot dead. When the operator read an evacuation warning over the Tannoy system, she sounded so “distressed and distraught” that some people thought she had been taken hostage and was making the announcement under duress.
The security room operators did not contact emergency services until after members of the public had called 000.
“Security staff were effectively behind the eight ball, that is they were effectively playing catch-up,” Dwyer said.
“In effect, some form of leadership vacuum in the first hour,” had hampered management of the emergency response, she said.
Had Scott not been on the scene so quickly, “there’s a real possibility that Mr Cauchi’s attacks may have continued,” she said.
The police officer is expected to appear in court on Tuesday. In a directions hearing in November, a court heard her actions “clearly saved lives”. She fired three shots at Cauchi as he ran towards her at speed, the court heard.
Other witnesses in the first week include NSW police Detective Ch Insp Andrew Marks; civilians Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot – dubbed “bollard man” after confronting Cauchi on an escalator; police Ch Insp Christopher Whalley; paramedic Christopher Wilkinson; ambulance commander, assistant commissioner Brent Armitage; and a special operations team paramedic.
The court heard the brief of evidence was “enormous”, with 40 witnesses giving evidence about 17 discrete issues.