Bondi attacker's psychiatrist backflips over ‘woman hater' claim

Sydney Morning Herald

14-05-2025

'I don't have evidence, it was conjecture on my part and I shouldn't have said that,' Dr A said.
'I shouldn't have speculated all the years later after I completed his treatment.'
Within months of ceasing his antipsychotics in 2019, Cauchi's mother Michele began raising the alarm with Dr A's clinic about her son's strange behaviour. She made seven attempts to raise concerns, according to clinical notes.
The inquest has heard Cauchi was scrawling countless messages about 'Satanic control', obsessed with pornography and showering compulsively.
His mother felt he was hearing voices, but Dr A has consistently denied they were warning signs of psychosis.
'Is hearing voices a sign of psychosis?' Chrysanthou asked.
'Yes, if it was evidenced, but there was no evidence … She didn't even live with him, it's just an opinion of the mother,' Dr A said.
Cauchi was ultimately discharged from the private clinic in 2020 at the same time he moved to Brisbane.
Dr A had one final telehealth session with Cauchi, but it was cancelled because he had tech issues with Skype and Medicare would not cover the session.
'The government removed the rebate from the telehealth appointment. I'm a private psychiatrist,' Dr A told the court.
The psychiatrist said she desperately wanted to keep Cauchi in her care, and wanted him to return to her clinic.
But, unless he was a risk to himself or others, she could not invoke the public health act to forcibly medicate him.
The powers, or lack thereof, of the mental health act in Queensland will be key to the inquest's findings, with both police and medical professionals unable to force Cauchi into care.
'My responsibility is not to medicate the person that doesn't have psychosis,' Dr A told the court.
Cauchi floated in and out of Toowoomba, where his parents lived, but enrolled with a new medical centre in Brisbane. That medical centre requested the 'medical summary' and 'all clinical notes' from Dr A, but she did not pass them on.
Chrysanthou said it was 'a failing' on Dr A's part. The new doctors did not know she felt Cauchi needed monthly monitoring. They also did not know about the concerns raised in the months prior.
'What was the use of a new doctor who didn't know his 20-year history because you didn't hand over the notes?' Chrysanthou asked.
Dr A said she handed over four recent documents and letters, which was standard practice.
'If they wanted to have anything more they can call me, they can ring me,' Dr A said.
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'We don't send patients' clinical notes with private psychiatrists. They have to specifically ask for the whole file to be transferred. Nobody wants the whole file to be transferred … This is [accepted] within psychiatric circles. Some psychiatrists just give the last letter.'
Dr A, at the end of her evidence on Wednesday, broke down in tears and was comforted in the witness box by her lawyer.