Bondi mass killer's psychiatrist 'never saw him unwell'

The Advertiser

13-05-2025

A psychiatrist who treated the Bondi Junction mass killer before his stabbing rampage says she never saw him unwell or posing a danger.
Joel Cauchi, 40, was experiencing psychotic symptoms in April 2024 when he fatally stabbed six shoppers at Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction and injured 10 others.
As an inquest into the rampage continued on Tuesday, the Queensland psychiatrist said she had not seen any danger signs in the eight years she had treated him.
"You had never seen Joel acutely unwell, had you?" counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked.
"He never showed any signs of positive symptoms, never showed signs of any relapse and never showed any issues of safety," the psychiatrist told the NSW Coroners Court.
Cauchi also did not show any fascination with weapons, she added.
When police seized his phone after the attacks, they found numerous disturbing web searches including for assault rifles and mass stabbings.
He had previously called police to his parents' Toowoomba home after his father took his knife collection in 2023.
The psychiatrist - who cannot be legally named - earlier issued a tearful apology to the families of the victims, Cauchi and those affected by the attacks.
Her life and health had also been personally impacted by the incident, she said.
"I offer my sincere apologies to you that this tragedy has happened," she said.
"I am aware that no words will ease the profound pain and suffering."
The inquest was told the doctor decided to wean Cauchi off his medications soon after he was transferred to her private clinic from the public system in 2012.
She gradually adjusted the dosage of his anti-psychotics down every few months, aiming to reach a level where any negative side effects disappeared.
By July 2019, he was completely off his medication - beyond the doctor's initial expectations.
When she first assessed Cauchi, she listed his "over-religious" father's symptoms of schizophrenia as a vulnerability because the son's condition was "definitely genetic".
But she told the court that Cauchi was loved and accepted by his family who was a major stabilising factor in his life.
Months after he stopped taking his medication, Cauchi's mother raised concerns about her son's worsening symptoms, the inquest was told on Monday.
His mother told them he was hearing voices, expressing sleeplessness, and experiencing extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Cauchi's father, however, was "adamant" about his son not resuming anti-psychotics and said "he himself had been traumatised by demons when awake and hears voices and is not on medication," a nurse's note read to the coroner said.
Cauchi had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen but was successfully treated for decades.
In early 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he moved to Brisbane when he was completely cut off from psychiatric care.
His rampage at the Westfield shopping centre in 2024 was brought to an end after he was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.
The hearing continues.
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
A psychiatrist who treated the Bondi Junction mass killer before his stabbing rampage says she never saw him unwell or posing a danger.
Joel Cauchi, 40, was experiencing psychotic symptoms in April 2024 when he fatally stabbed six shoppers at Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction and injured 10 others.
As an inquest into the rampage continued on Tuesday, the Queensland psychiatrist said she had not seen any danger signs in the eight years she had treated him.
"You had never seen Joel acutely unwell, had you?" counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked.
"He never showed any signs of positive symptoms, never showed signs of any relapse and never showed any issues of safety," the psychiatrist told the NSW Coroners Court.
Cauchi also did not show any fascination with weapons, she added.
When police seized his phone after the attacks, they found numerous disturbing web searches including for assault rifles and mass stabbings.
He had previously called police to his parents' Toowoomba home after his father took his knife collection in 2023.
The psychiatrist - who cannot be legally named - earlier issued a tearful apology to the families of the victims, Cauchi and those affected by the attacks.
Her life and health had also been personally impacted by the incident, she said.
"I offer my sincere apologies to you that this tragedy has happened," she said.
"I am aware that no words will ease the profound pain and suffering."
The inquest was told the doctor decided to wean Cauchi off his medications soon after he was transferred to her private clinic from the public system in 2012.
She gradually adjusted the dosage of his anti-psychotics down every few months, aiming to reach a level where any negative side effects disappeared.
By July 2019, he was completely off his medication - beyond the doctor's initial expectations.
When she first assessed Cauchi, she listed his "over-religious" father's symptoms of schizophrenia as a vulnerability because the son's condition was "definitely genetic".
But she told the court that Cauchi was loved and accepted by his family who was a major stabilising factor in his life.
Months after he stopped taking his medication, Cauchi's mother raised concerns about her son's worsening symptoms, the inquest was told on Monday.
His mother told them he was hearing voices, expressing sleeplessness, and experiencing extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Cauchi's father, however, was "adamant" about his son not resuming anti-psychotics and said "he himself had been traumatised by demons when awake and hears voices and is not on medication," a nurse's note read to the coroner said.
Cauchi had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen but was successfully treated for decades.
In early 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he moved to Brisbane when he was completely cut off from psychiatric care.
His rampage at the Westfield shopping centre in 2024 was brought to an end after he was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.
The hearing continues.
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
A psychiatrist who treated the Bondi Junction mass killer before his stabbing rampage says she never saw him unwell or posing a danger.
Joel Cauchi, 40, was experiencing psychotic symptoms in April 2024 when he fatally stabbed six shoppers at Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction and injured 10 others.
As an inquest into the rampage continued on Tuesday, the Queensland psychiatrist said she had not seen any danger signs in the eight years she had treated him.
"You had never seen Joel acutely unwell, had you?" counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked.
"He never showed any signs of positive symptoms, never showed signs of any relapse and never showed any issues of safety," the psychiatrist told the NSW Coroners Court.
Cauchi also did not show any fascination with weapons, she added.
When police seized his phone after the attacks, they found numerous disturbing web searches including for assault rifles and mass stabbings.
He had previously called police to his parents' Toowoomba home after his father took his knife collection in 2023.
The psychiatrist - who cannot be legally named - earlier issued a tearful apology to the families of the victims, Cauchi and those affected by the attacks.
Her life and health had also been personally impacted by the incident, she said.
"I offer my sincere apologies to you that this tragedy has happened," she said.
"I am aware that no words will ease the profound pain and suffering."
The inquest was told the doctor decided to wean Cauchi off his medications soon after he was transferred to her private clinic from the public system in 2012.
She gradually adjusted the dosage of his anti-psychotics down every few months, aiming to reach a level where any negative side effects disappeared.
By July 2019, he was completely off his medication - beyond the doctor's initial expectations.
When she first assessed Cauchi, she listed his "over-religious" father's symptoms of schizophrenia as a vulnerability because the son's condition was "definitely genetic".
But she told the court that Cauchi was loved and accepted by his family who was a major stabilising factor in his life.
Months after he stopped taking his medication, Cauchi's mother raised concerns about her son's worsening symptoms, the inquest was told on Monday.
His mother told them he was hearing voices, expressing sleeplessness, and experiencing extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Cauchi's father, however, was "adamant" about his son not resuming anti-psychotics and said "he himself had been traumatised by demons when awake and hears voices and is not on medication," a nurse's note read to the coroner said.
Cauchi had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen but was successfully treated for decades.
In early 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he moved to Brisbane when he was completely cut off from psychiatric care.
His rampage at the Westfield shopping centre in 2024 was brought to an end after he was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.
The hearing continues.
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
A psychiatrist who treated the Bondi Junction mass killer before his stabbing rampage says she never saw him unwell or posing a danger.
Joel Cauchi, 40, was experiencing psychotic symptoms in April 2024 when he fatally stabbed six shoppers at Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction and injured 10 others.
As an inquest into the rampage continued on Tuesday, the Queensland psychiatrist said she had not seen any danger signs in the eight years she had treated him.
"You had never seen Joel acutely unwell, had you?" counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked.
"He never showed any signs of positive symptoms, never showed signs of any relapse and never showed any issues of safety," the psychiatrist told the NSW Coroners Court.
Cauchi also did not show any fascination with weapons, she added.
When police seized his phone after the attacks, they found numerous disturbing web searches including for assault rifles and mass stabbings.
He had previously called police to his parents' Toowoomba home after his father took his knife collection in 2023.
The psychiatrist - who cannot be legally named - earlier issued a tearful apology to the families of the victims, Cauchi and those affected by the attacks.
Her life and health had also been personally impacted by the incident, she said.
"I offer my sincere apologies to you that this tragedy has happened," she said.
"I am aware that no words will ease the profound pain and suffering."
The inquest was told the doctor decided to wean Cauchi off his medications soon after he was transferred to her private clinic from the public system in 2012.
She gradually adjusted the dosage of his anti-psychotics down every few months, aiming to reach a level where any negative side effects disappeared.
By July 2019, he was completely off his medication - beyond the doctor's initial expectations.
When she first assessed Cauchi, she listed his "over-religious" father's symptoms of schizophrenia as a vulnerability because the son's condition was "definitely genetic".
But she told the court that Cauchi was loved and accepted by his family who was a major stabilising factor in his life.
Months after he stopped taking his medication, Cauchi's mother raised concerns about her son's worsening symptoms, the inquest was told on Monday.
His mother told them he was hearing voices, expressing sleeplessness, and experiencing extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Cauchi's father, however, was "adamant" about his son not resuming anti-psychotics and said "he himself had been traumatised by demons when awake and hears voices and is not on medication," a nurse's note read to the coroner said.
Cauchi had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen but was successfully treated for decades.
In early 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he moved to Brisbane when he was completely cut off from psychiatric care.
His rampage at the Westfield shopping centre in 2024 was brought to an end after he was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.
The hearing continues.
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636