‘Hatred toward women': Killer's psychiatrist makes bombshell claim at Bondi inquest
Dr A's evidence contradicts a panel of psychiatric experts whose evidence to the inquest suggests Cauchi was 'floridly psychotic' and stabbed people at random.
They concluded he was not motivated by any hatred or fixation on women after reviewing evidence from his phones and internet history.
The evidence from Dr A has become central to the inquest as she weaned Cauchi off two antipsychotic medications, Clopine and Abilify, in the years before the attack. He was completely unmedicated from mid-2019.
'Do you take responsibility for the decision-making in removing Joel from Clopine and Abilify?' Dwyer asked.
'It was my decision, and his decision,' Dr A shot back.
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'I was listening to the patient,' she later added.
By his late 20s and 30s Cauchi was highly intelligent, spoke multiple languages, and eager to establish a full life outside his parents' care, clinical notes show.
But his decline from late 2019 was swift and dramatic.
His mother tried desperately to raise the alarm with Dr A and the clinic.
Michele Cauchi warned doctors and nurses that her son was scrawling notes about being under 'satanic' control, wearing layers of clothing to avoid illness, and was walking strangely.
'You had an agreement with (Cauchi), if there would be signs and symptoms of psychosis, he would take the medication?' Dwyer asked Dr A.
'He was a private patient, he decides if he wants to take the medication,' Dr A said.
By November 2019 Cauchi was obsessing over pornography and sexually transmitted diseases.
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But Dr A denied Cauchi showed early warning signs of relapse into psychosis in the final years of her care.
'Sitting in the witness box today … do you accept he did develop a psychosis?' Dwyer asked.
'It wasn't psychosis, it wasn't even early warning signs of relapse, it was based on his fear of STDs, it was based on his sexual frustration, he told us later about prostitutes and women and sex,' Dr A said.
'(Re-medicating Cauchi) wouldn't have changed the outcome and, in hindsight, it wasn't necessary – the medication.'
Cauchi's father, who has his own mental health problems, had spoken with his son's carers and described hearing the 'voice of God' and 'demons' of his own in 2019.
He did not want his son to take any medication, and feared it could kill him.
Dr A told the inquest that schizophrenia is hereditary, and required lifelong psychiatric care and monitoring.
Cauchi was discharged from Dr A's clinic in 2020 and moved to Brisbane. Around that time, he began running into problems with police and became fixated with knives.
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