Bondi Junction Inquest LIVE updates: Hero cop among witnesses to give evidence in first week
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What you need to know
Watch the inquest live here from 10am (AEST)
Welcome to our live coverage of the first day of the Bondi Junction Inquest. The opening address of counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, begins at 10am and is being live-streamed on YouTube. The inquest will run until Friday, May 30.
State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan is examining the circumstances in which Joel Cauchi, who had a long history of mental illness, killed six people at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024, before being shot dead by police.
Ashlee Good, 38, Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Faraz Tahir, 30, and Pikria Darchia, 55, were killed during Cauchi's three-minute knife attack. A further 10 people were injured.
The inquest is being held in Court 1 of the Forensic Medicine and Coroners Court Complex in Lidcombe. The court has said it will take a trauma-informed approach to conducting these hearings, including setting up a cordon around the entry to allow family and friends to enter the building without engaging with the media if they wish.
9.29am
The media response
One of the issues that will be examined by the inquest, at the request of some of the families whose loved ones died in the attack, is the media response to the incident and the impact of reporting on them.
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Sydney barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, is acting for the families of Ashlee Good, Jade Young and Dawn Singleton (excluding Dawn's father, adman John Singleton).
'A number of families have reported their significant distress at graphic footage being shown in the media,' counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, said during a preliminary hearing earlier this month.
'All I can do ... is implore the media to be sensitive and thoughtful to the wishes of the family and to understand that a specific issue has been added at the request of families because it has been so distressing so far.
[The] media might want to reflect whether it is in the interests of the public to replay again and again that graphic footage, because that will not be played in this court, it is not in the brief of evidence and it may not be in the public interest to replay it. But that is not in [the state coroner's] control, and the media will have to reflect deeply on that, we hope.'
9.25am
The security response
Counsel assisting the inquest has said that 'the nature and timing of the response of Scentre Group, which manages Westfield, and the security contractors, Glad Group and Falcon Security, when the events unfolded on 13 April' will also be examined.
This includes a consideration of 'the first point in time when staff in the CCTV or control room at Westfield Bondi Junction became aware of an active armed offender in the centre', the communication between security staff and the options available to them.
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