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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
How Bondi mass killer slipped through the cracks in Australia
For many, Saturdays are something to look forward to - relaxed times, enjoyed with family and friends. But Elizabeth Young "dreads" them. It's a weekly reminder of her daughter Jade's violent murder at Westfield Bondi Junction. "On a lovely autumn afternoon, to learn your daughter is dead, stabbed in broad daylight, killed amidst fellow unsuspecting shoppers... [when she] was living, breathing, just an hour ago... it's the stuff of nightmares, of a parallel universe," Elizabeth told an inquiry into the mass killing this week. "The moment [the attacker] casually plunged that knife into Jade, our ordinary lives were shattered." Her pain was echoed by families of the other victims who gave emotional testimonies on the final day of a five-week coronial inquest into the fatal stabbings on 13 April last year. The inquiry sought to understand how a 40-year-old Queensland man with a long history of mental illness was able to walk into the popular Sydney shopping centre on a busy Saturday afternoon and kill six people, injuring 10 others including a nine-month-old baby. The court heard hours of evidence from dozens of witnesses - doctors, survivors, victims' families, police - in a bid to find out how, or if, Australia can prevent a such a tragedy happening again. "It seems to me that my daughter and five others were killed by the cumulative failures of numbers of people within a whole series of fallible systems," Elizabeth told New South Wales (NSW) Coroners Court. It was a mild, sparkling afternoon - the first day of school holidays – when Joel Cauchi walked into the sprawling shopping centre, just minutes from Australia's most famous beach. Just before 15:33 local time (GMT), Cauchi took a 30cm knife from his backpack and stabbed to death his first victim, 25-year-old Dawn Singleton. Within three minutes, he had fatally attacked five others – Yixuan Cheng, 27; Jade Young, 47, Ashlee Good, 38; Faraz Tahir, 30; and Pikria Darchia, 55. Cauchi also injured 10 others including Good's infant daughter. At 15:38, five minutes after his rampage started, Cauchi was shot dead by police officer Amy Scott, who had been on duty nearby and arrived at the centre about a minute earlier. As news outlets reported on the killings, Cauchi's parents recognised their son on TV and called the police to alert them about his decades-long struggle with serious mental health problems. Jade Young's family was also confronted by images of her on TV, describing to the inquest the horror of seeing video which showed her "lifeless body being worked on". Similarly, Julie Singleton, whose daughter Dawn was killed while standing in a line at a bakery, heard her daughter named as a victim on the radio before her body had even been formally identified and other relatives informed. The scenes at Bondi sent shockwaves across the nation, where mass murder is rare, and prompted a rush of anger and fear from women in particular. All except two of the 16 victims were female, including five of the six people who died. 'I saw him running with the knife': Witnesses tell of Sydney stabbing horror An attack on women that has devastated Australia Sydney stabbings: Who were the victims? A key focus of the inquest was to scrutinise the multiple interactions Cauchi had with police and mental health professionals in the months and years leading up to the attacks. The inquest heard that Cauchi was once a bright young man with a promising life ahead of him. His family say he was a gifted student, and had attended a private school on scholarship before topping his class at university. At the age of 17, in 2001, Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia and soon started taking medication for his condition. After a decade of managing it in the public health system, Cauchi started regular sessions with psychiatrist Dr Andrea Boros-Lavack in his hometown of Toowoomba in 2012. In 2015 he complained about the medication side effects, so Dr Boros-Lavack started to gradually reduce his dosage of clozapine – used for treatment-resistant schizophrenia – after seeking a second opinion from another psychiatrist, the inquest heard. She weaned him off clozapine entirely in 2018 and Cauchi also stopped taking medication to treat his obsessive-compulsive disorder the year after, she said. In 2019, for the first time in about 15 years, Cauchi was no longer on antipsychotic medications. No second opinion on completely stopping either drug was sought by Dr Boros-Lavack, she admitted under questioning. The inquest heard from medical professionals who said that in most cases, patients coming off antipsychotic medications transition to another one, rather than ceasing treatment altogether. Within months, Cauchi's mum contacted his psychiatrist with concerns about her son's mental state after finding notes showing he believed he was "under satanic control". Around the same time, Cauchi developed what Dr Boros-Lavack told the inquest was "a compulsive interest in porn". She wrote a prescription but told the inquest it was up to Cauchi to decide if he would start taking the medication again. In 2020, Cauchi left his family home, moved to Brisbane and stopped seeing Dr Boros-Lavack. At this time, after almost two decades of treatment, Cauchi had no regular psychiatrist, was not on any medications to treat his schizophrenia and had no family living nearby. The inquest heard he began seeking a gun licence, contacting three Brisbane doctors for a medical certificate to support his application. They either didn't request access to his medical file or weren't given his whole history by Dr Boros-Lavack, who said if they needed more information they could have asked her for it. The third doctor gave Cauchi the clearance he was after, but he never applied for a gun, the court was told. Meanwhile Cauchi was increasingly coming into contact with police. After moving to Brisbane, he was pulled over three times for driving erratically. In 2021, officers were called to Cauchi's unit in Brisbane after residents heard a man screaming and banging sounds. In 2022, Cauchi was reported to police after calling a girl's school to ask if he could come and watch the students swim and play sports. Officers tried to call Cauchi but weren't able to reach him. In January 2023, Cauchi had moved back in with his parents in Toowoomba and called police to complain that his father had stolen his collection of "pigging knives". At this time, his mother raised concerns with the officers, saying he should be back on medication. Authorities can't detain people for mental health reasons unless they are a risk to themselves and as the officers had assessed Cauchi did not meet that description, they left, the court heard. After the call-out, one of the attending police officers sent an email to an internal police mental health coordinator, requesting they follow up on Cauchi. However, the email was overlooked due to understaffing, the inquest was told. Months later, police in Sydney found Cauchi sleeping rough near a road after being called by a concerned passerby. By 2024 Cauchi's mental health had deteriorated, he was homeless, and isolated from his family. The inquest looked closely at Cauchi's mental health treatment in Queensland, with a panel of five psychiatrists tasked with reviewing it. They found that Dr Boros-Lavack had missed opportunities to put him back on anti-psychotic medication, one member of the panel saying she had "not taken seriously enough" the concerns from Cauchi's mother in late-2019. The panel also gave evidence at the inquest that Cauchi was "floridly psychotic" - in the active part of a psychotic episode – when he walked into the shopping centre. When questioned by the lawyer assisting the coroner, Dr Boros-Lavack stressed: "I did not fail in my care of Joel." She had earlier told the inquest she believed Cauchi was not psychotic during the attack and that medication would not have prevented the tragedy. Dr Boros-Lavack said the attacks may have been "due to his sexual frustration, pornography and hatred towards women". But the next day, she withdrew that evidence, saying it was simply "conjecture" and she was not in a position to assess Cauchi's mental state, having not treated him since 2019. However the inquest is investigating whether Cauchi targeted specific individuals or groups. For Peter Young, the brother of Jade, the answer seemed clear. "Fuelled by his frustration with not finding a 'nice' girl to marry", his "rapid hunt found 16 victims, 14 of which were women," he told the inquest. The NSW Police Commissioner in the days after the attack said it was "obvious" to detectives that the offender had focussed on women. However, during the inquest, the homicide squad's Andrew Paul Marks said he did not believe there was evidence that Cauchi had specifically targeted women. The inquiry also heard about a number of failings or near misses in the way security, police, paramedics and the media responded to the attack. It was told that recruitment and training pressures for the security provider meant that the centre's control room operator was "not match fit" for the role. At the exact moment when Cauchi stabbed his first victim, the room was unattended as she was on a toilet break. Security guard Faraz Tahir, the sole male victim of the stabbings, was working his first day on the job when he was killing trying to stop Cauchi, raising questions over the powers and protection given to personnel like him. His brother, Muzafar, told the inquest how Faraz died "with honour as a hero" and also acknowledged that Cauchi's parents had lost their son: "We know that this tragedy is not their fault." The contractor responsible for security at the shopping centre has since updated its training and policies, as well as introducing stab-proof vests for guards. Several families criticised media coverage in the wake of the attack, telling the inquiry they hoped the industry would reflect on how they should report sensitive stories so as not to further traumatise those affected. After weeks of evidence, the inquest was adjourned on Thursday with NSW state coroner Teresa O'Sullivan expected to deliver her recommendations by the end of the year. At the start of the inquest, O'Sullivan said the hearings weren't about who was to blame for the attacks, but rather to "identify potential opportunities for reform or improvement to enable such events to be avoided in the future". "I want the families to know their loved ones will not be lost in this process." Elizabeth Young, though, told the court, for her, "nothing good" will come from the inquest. "At 74, I have lost my way in life," she said, describing the crippling impact of the killings. But she said the action the country needed to take was already obvious to her. "My daughter was murdered by an unmedicated, chronic schizophrenic... who had in his possession knives designed for killing. "[This is] another cry out to an Australia that doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that what happened... is essentially the catastrophic consequence of years of neglect of, and within, our mental health systems."
Perth Now
5 days ago
- Perth Now
Bondi attack survivor's harrowing story
Warning: Distressing content. People walked through the popular shopping centre with ease, there was nothing to suggest to them their afternoon would amount to anything other than the regular autumn day it should have been. Some were pushing prams, others running mindless errands. As shoppers began to run through the Westfield Bondi Junction, it was easy to brush the behaviour off. No one yelled as one woman, known as Witness I, saw people running towards her: she thought they were just being 'silly'. It was only after she 'felt an intense thud in her back' that she turned to see a man walking away with a knife. She placed her hand on her back and saw blood on her hand as she had realised she had been stabbed. There had been nothing to alert her that the 'floridly psychotic' Joel Cauchi was in the midst of a deadly rampage, stabbing 16 people in less than three minutes. Witness I was his 13th victim, and as quickly as he'd stabbed her, he was onto the next victim. The Westfield Bondi Junction attack unfolded on April 13, 2024. Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia CCTV captured the moments before Joel Cauchi was shot. Supplied. Credit: Supplied Another woman saw Cauchi approaching from the same way she'd seen people run from, less than a minute after Witness I was stabbed. 'Why is everyone running?' she asked him, before he stabbed her in the chest. Once inside the shelter of a nearby store the woman, known as Witness X, called her mum, believing 'she was going to die'. Cauchi's last victim, Liya Barko, saw the killer 'veer' her way and 'immediately felt a hot pain'. Realising she'd been stabbed, she believed Cauchi told her 'Catch you' before running away. Witness I, Witness X, Ms Barko and seven other victims survived the attack. Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Faraz Ahmed Tahir, Ashlee Good, Jade Young and Pikria Darchia were all killed, tearing apart the lives of their loved ones, some of whom described their grief as 'bone deep, soul crushing agony' that follows them 'like a shadow'. CCTV showed Ms Cheng walking through the centre on her phone, 'oblivious' to what was unfolding, before she was killed. L to R: Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot, the two French nationals who challenged Joel Cauchi with bollards. NewsWire / John Appleyard Credit: News Corp Australia The sheer speed at which the attack unfolded left many in the centre unaware of what was happening: 'bollard men' Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot told an inquest into the attack they ushered a woman, unaware of Cauchi lurking below, off an escalator before they threw bollards at the knife-wielding killer. Even security staff weren't entirely sure what was going on, with footage showing a security supervisor running towards a danger he had scarce information on. Through tears, he told the court he'd seen 'people on the ground' and had radioed to ask where the attacker was. Bondi stabbing victims (top l-r) Jade Young, Ashlee Good, Dawn Singleton, (bottom l-r) Cheng Yixuan, Faraz Ahmed Tahir and Pikria Darchia Credit: Supplied When Inspector Amy Scott shot Cauchi at 3.38pm, the supervisor – like many in the centre – didn't know they were police shots, instead thinking he was being shot at. Fifty witnesses were called to give evidence to a five-week coronial inquest into the tragedy, many breaking down and crying in the witness box as they relived the horrors of April 13, 2024. The bar table and media room weren't spared from the tears, with tissue boxes placed throughout the building as the inquest concluded on Thursday. The officer in charge of the investigation into the attack, Chief Inspector Andrew Marks. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia Red flags, missed opportunities The evidence painted a picture of confusion, missed opportunities and red flags in the care of Cauchi as well as the responses of emergency services and the centre's operator. This included a psychiatrist, known as Dr C, who deemed Cauchi fit for a weapons license in January 2021. This is despite Cauchi telling Dr C he'd only been on clozapine for two years, when in fact he'd been on the antipsychotic drug for nearly two decades to treat schizophrenia before he was gradually weaned off it. Inspector Amy Scott arrived at the scene within about two minutes of acknowledging the job on police radio. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia Dr C only discovered this after contacting Cauchi's former Toowoomba psychiatry clinic, and agreed with Ms Sullivan this was a 'red flag': he acknowledged he shouldn't have deemed him fit for the license. Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer SC said it was 'very fortunate' Cauchi didn't follow through with a gun license after the Queensland Police Force issued him a statement of eligibility. Mum's concerns 'not taken seriously enough' An expert psychiatric conclave pored over evidence of the mental health care Cauchi received, with Denmark psychiatrist Professor Merete Nordentoft telling the court concerns raised by his mother of a deterioration in his mental state were 'not taken seriously enough'. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2001, Cauchi's dose of the antipsychotic, clozapine, was gradually titrated down by his private Toowoomba psychiatrist, Dr Andrea Boros-Lavak, over complaints of over-sedation. He was entirely weaned off it in 2018, and was taken off the drug prescribed for his obsessive compulsive disorder (Abilify) the following year. Shortly after his Abilify was stopped, Cauchi's mother, Michele raised concerns with Dr Boros-Lavak's clinic seven times between November 2019 and February 2020, ringing them, sending emails, and visiting in person to report a potential relapse. She reported her son may have been hearing voices, was leaving notes he was under 'satanic control', and his OCD was 'getting out of control'. Cauchi's mother, Michele Cauchi, raised concerns over her son's mental health several times. NewsWire/Tertius Pickard Credit: NCA NewsWire Dr Andrea Boros-Lavak was Cauchi's treating psychiatrist for about eight years. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia Dr Boros-Lavak prescribed him Abilify in November 2019 as a precaution, but said in hindsight it wasn't necessary, chalking the symptoms up to concern over a risky sexual encounter he'd had. He did not fill the script. Dr Boros-Lavack told the court 'Michele is a beautiful, beautiful mother, but she is not a psychiatrist'. The psychiatrist discharged him from her care to a GP when Cauchi moved to Brisbane in March 2020: the referral letter was the subject of scrutiny for failing to mention Mrs Cauchi's concerns. Her concerns were also not mentioned in any further correspondence with other practitioners caring for Joel, including Dr C. Dr Boros-Lavack's lawyer at one stage lifted a massive binder before the court and questioned the likelihood of practitioners actually reading a referral containing a patient's entire medical history. The expert psychiatric panel ultimately agreed Dr Boros-Lavack's care did meet the accepted standards for private psychiatrists during that period, but there were 'shortcomings' in her handover. Cops' 'missed opportunity' year before attack Years later in 2023 Cauchi called police to his family's Toowoomba home, with body-worn video of the attending police officers revealing Cauchi had assaulted his father in a 'rage' after he confiscated his pigging knives. One of the officers said Cauchi had a 'real hard on for his knives' during the call out. Cauchi called police on his father after he confiscated his knives. Supplied. Credit: Supplied Mrs Cauchi again expressed she was worried about her son, telling the officers she was unsure how to get him help 'unless he does something drastic'. Under the belief they had no powers to force Cauchi for an urgent assessment due to 'confusing' changes to the Emergency Examination Authority (EEA) criteria, the officers requested a follow-up for the Cauchi family. In what was agreed as an 'oversight' and 'missed opportunity', the email — like Cauchi — slipped through cracks and was ultimately missed, despite the court being told evidenced painted a 'clear picture' he needed an emergency examination at some point in time. A better system for follow-up has since been put in place. By 2024, Cauchi was making notes on his phone to 'Call knife sharpener and confirm it doesn't need sharpening for mall use' and to 'Check out malls and also where to run'. Chillingly, he made searches related to the 1999 Columbine shooting in the US on the morning of the fatal attack. Evidence suggested Cauchi was a 'totally different' person while he was medicated. Control room operator not 'up to speed' The CCTV control room was unmonitored as Cauchi began his deadly rampage, as the operator, known as CR1, had gone to the bathroom just 40 seconds prior. Her colleague, CR2, was also out of the room, having been pulled out for training. International security expert Scott Wilson was called to give evidence in the inquest. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia International security expert Scott Wilson told the court CR1 obviously wasn't 'up to speed' in her role, with the court earlier told she was on the verge of being replaced and had been flagged for 'ongoing issues' on multiple occasions: retraining needed to be scheduled as she was responding too slow, notes made days before the attack stated. Former Glad Group project and training manager Andrew David denied suggestions he was directed to 'rush' CR1's training due to staffing pressures, telling the court 'there was pressure … I hope that didn't affect my training'. The delay in activating public announcements, alarms and messaging through the centre was also identified as an issue, with it accepted all actions should have been rolled out earlier and should have encouraged people to 'escape, hide, tell' rather than evacuate. A suite of measures have since been put in place at the centre, including an automated PA system. Confusion over whether the centre was a 'hot zone', and if there was a second offender, also highlighted the need for improved interagency communications between NSW Police and Ambulance. Importantly, it was generally accepted decisions made on the day of the attack didn't affect anyone's survivability, however it's important to learn for any future mass casualty event. Many families slammed the media's reporting of the tragedy, including Ms Young's mother, who was sickened at the suggestion some of the footage aired of her daughter and grieving family after the attack was newsworthy. Ms Singleton's mother, Julie, and fiance, Ashley Wildey, both reported they were upset to find Ms Singleton had been identified in media reports before they were allowed to formally identify her, with the mother 'still hoping at this point there had been some kind of horrible mistake'. She slammed reporters requesting comment, including by leaving notes in her mailbox, as 'intrusive', while Mr Wildey said the reporting of the attack caused 'immense and immeasurable pain' to his and Ms Singleton's families. Sue Chyranthou SC represented the Singleton, Good and Young families during the inquest. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia Families of the victims specifically requested the media response, and the impact this had on them, be examined during the inquest. Tensions in court prompted gasps Bubbling tensions were brought to the surface over the five weeks, including one moment where counsel assisting the coroner Emma Sullivan reminded Mr David he was under oath during questions about CR1's training. The court was shown CR1's training competency checklist: each section was signed off and dated at January 31, 2024, which was in stark contrast to another checklist which showed sections signed off on different dates. Accepting he had signed off on CR1's training, he simultaneously denied any recollection of it, prompting Ms Sullivan to ask if he was doing his 'very best'. She told him 'there are families in court who would really like some answers'. Even NSW coroner Teresa O'Sullivan interjected, asking him if he knew at all what he was doing on the day in question. 'From the look of this document that you've signed, it looks like everything happened on 31 January 2024, which you say is impossible to have done that much training,' Ms O'Sullivan said. 'The reason we're asking is it's troubling to see this without an explanation from you … I take it that you're doing your very best to try and remember how it came to be that your signature is on this document?' Ms O'Sullivan pressed. Mr David maintained he couldn't recall despite doing his best, and later told the court he didn't remember issues with CR1's performance being raised with him. 'That's your evidence on oath?' Ms Sullivan asked. He agreed. Joel Cauchi stabbed 16 people in less than three minutes before he was shot dead. Supplied. Credit: Supplied Accepting he had signed off on CR1's training, he simultaneously denied any recollection of it, prompting Ms Sullivan to ask if he was doing his 'very best'. She told him 'there are families in court who would really like some answers'. Even NSW coroner Teresa O'Sullivan interjected, asking him if he knew at all what he was doing on the day in question. 'From the look of this document that you've signed, it looks like everything happened on 31 January 2024, which you say is impossible to have done that much training,' Ms O'Sullivan said. 'The reason we're asking is it's troubling to see this without an explanation from you … I take it that you're doing your very best to try and remember how it came to be that your signature is on this document?' Ms O'Sullivan pressed. Mr David maintained he couldn't recall despite doing his best, and later told the court he didn't remember issues with CR1's performance being raised with him. 'That's your evidence on oath?' Ms Sullivan asked. He agreed. Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer SC. NewsWire / Monique Harmer Credit: News Corp Australia The court was told CR1's training could have been undertaken over a period of time, and simply signed off all at once. Cauchi's psychiatrist also sparked a collective gasp from the room of journalists when she claimed his attack had 'nothing to do with psychosis'. 'I think it might have been due to his frustration, sexual frustration, pornography, and hatred towards women,' Dr Boros-Lavack told the court. Almost equally shocking was Dr Dwyer's subsequent suggestion that Dr Boros-Lavack's refusal to accept Cauchi was psychotic on April 13 was 'because you don't want to accept yourself the failings in your care of Joel?' 'I did not fail in my care of Joel, and I refuse. I, I have no error on my behalf. That is my answer.' She withdrew the comment, branding it 'conjecture' the following day when questioned by lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC, who represented the Good, Singleton and Young families. Through her evidence, Dr Boros-Lavack was constantly asked to please listen to the question and not to interject. mental health support
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
How Bondi mass killer slipped through the cracks in Australia
For many, Saturdays are something to look forward to - relaxed times, enjoyed with family and friends. But Elizabeth Young "dreads" them. It's a weekly reminder of her daughter Jade's violent murder at Westfield Bondi Junction. "On a lovely autumn afternoon, to learn your daughter is dead, stabbed in broad daylight, killed amidst fellow unsuspecting shoppers... [when she] was living, breathing, just an hour ago... it's the stuff of nightmares, of a parallel universe," Elizabeth told an inquiry into the mass killing this week. "The moment [the attacker] casually plunged that knife into Jade, our ordinary lives were shattered." Her pain was echoed by families of the other victims who gave emotional testimonies on the final day of a five-week coronial inquest into the fatal stabbings on 13 April last year. The inquiry sought to understand how a 40-year-old Queensland man with a long history of mental illness was able to walk into the popular Sydney shopping centre on a busy Saturday afternoon and kill six people, injuring 10 others including a nine-month-old baby. The court heard hours of evidence from dozens of witnesses - doctors, survivors, victims' families, police - in a bid to find out how, or if, Australia can prevent a such a tragedy happening again. "It seems to me that my daughter and five others were killed by the cumulative failures of numbers of people within a whole series of fallible systems," Elizabeth told New South Wales (NSW) Coroners Court. It was a mild, sparkling afternoon - the first day of school holidays – when Joel Cauchi walked into the sprawling shopping centre, just minutes from Australia's most famous beach. Just before 15:33 local time (GMT), Cauchi took a 30cm knife from his backpack and stabbed to death his first victim, 25-year-old Dawn Singleton. Within three minutes, he had fatally attacked five others – Yixuan Cheng, 27; Jade Young, 47, Ashlee Good, 38; Faraz Tahir, 30; and Pikria Darchia, 55. Cauchi also injured 10 others including Good's infant daughter. At 15:38, five minutes after his rampage started, Cauchi was shot dead by police officer Amy Scott, who had been on duty nearby and arrived at the centre about a minute earlier. As news outlets reported on the killings, Cauchi's parents recognised their son on TV and called the police to alert them about his decades-long struggle with serious mental health problems. Jade Young's family was also confronted by images of her on TV, describing to the inquest the horror of seeing video which showed her "lifeless body being worked on". Similarly, Julie Singleton, whose daughter Dawn was killed while standing in a line at a bakery, heard her daughter named as a victim on the radio before her body had even been formally identified and other relatives informed. The scenes at Bondi sent shockwaves across the nation, where mass murder is rare, and prompted a rush of anger and fear from women in particular. All except two of the 16 victims were female, including five of the six people who died. 'I saw him running with the knife': Witnesses tell of Sydney stabbing horror An attack on women that has devastated Australia Sydney stabbings: Who were the victims? A key focus of the inquest was to scrutinise the multiple interactions Cauchi had with police and mental health professionals in the months and years leading up to the attacks. The inquest heard that Cauchi was once a bright young man with a promising life ahead of him. His family say he was a gifted student, and had attended a private school on scholarship before topping his class at university. At the age of 17, in 2001, Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia and soon started taking medication for his condition. After a decade of managing it in the public health system, Cauchi started regular sessions with psychiatrist Dr Andrea Boros-Lavack in his hometown of Toowoomba in 2012. In 2015 he complained about the medication side effects, so Dr Boros-Lavack started to gradually reduce his dosage of clozapine – used for treatment-resistant schizophrenia – after seeking a second opinion from another psychiatrist, the inquest heard. She weaned him off clozapine entirely in 2018 and Cauchi also stopped taking medication to treat his obsessive-compulsive disorder the year after, she said. In 2019, for the first time in about 15 years, Cauchi was no longer on antipsychotic medications. No second opinion on completely stopping either drug was sought by Dr Boros-Lavack, she admitted under questioning. The inquest heard from medical professionals who said that in most cases, patients coming off antipsychotic medications transition to another one, rather than ceasing treatment altogether. Within months, Cauchi's mum contacted his psychiatrist with concerns about her son's mental state after finding notes showing he believed he was "under satanic control". Around the same time, Cauchi developed what Dr Boros-Lavack told the inquest was "a compulsive interest in porn". She wrote a prescription but told the inquest it was up to Cauchi to decide if he would start taking the medication again. In 2020, Cauchi left his family home, moved to Brisbane and stopped seeing Dr Boros-Lavack. At this time, after almost two decades of treatment, Cauchi had no regular psychiatrist, was not on any medications to treat his schizophrenia and had no family living nearby. The inquest heard he began seeking a gun licence, contacting three Brisbane doctors for a medical certificate to support his application. They either didn't request access to his medical file or weren't given his whole history by Dr Boros-Lavack, who said if they needed more information they could have asked her for it. The third doctor gave Cauchi the clearance he was after, but he never applied for a gun, the court was told. Meanwhile Cauchi was increasingly coming into contact with police. After moving to Brisbane, he was pulled over three times for driving erratically. In 2021, officers were called to Cauchi's unit in Brisbane after residents heard a man screaming and banging sounds. In 2022, Cauchi was reported to police after calling a girl's school to ask if he could come and watch the students swim and play sports. Officers tried to call Cauchi but weren't able to reach him. In January 2023, Cauchi had moved back in with his parents in Toowoomba and called police to complain that his father had stolen his collection of "pigging knives". At this time, his mother raised concerns with the officers, saying he should be back on medication. Authorities can't detain people for mental health reasons unless they are a risk to themselves and as the officers had assessed Cauchi did not meet that description, they left, the court heard. After the call-out, one of the attending police officers sent an email to an internal police mental health coordinator, requesting they follow up on Cauchi. However, the email was overlooked due to understaffing, the inquest was told. Months later, police in Sydney found Cauchi sleeping rough near a road after being called by a concerned passerby. By 2024 Cauchi's mental health had deteriorated, he was homeless, and isolated from his family. The inquest looked closely at Cauchi's mental health treatment in Queensland, with a panel of five psychiatrists tasked with reviewing it. They found that Dr Boros-Lavack had missed opportunities to put him back on anti-psychotic medication, one member of the panel saying she had "not taken seriously enough" the concerns from Cauchi's mother in late-2019. The panel also gave evidence at the inquest that Cauchi was "floridly psychotic" - in the active part of a psychotic episode – when he walked into the shopping centre. When questioned by the lawyer assisting the coroner, Dr Boros-Lavack stressed: "I did not fail in my care of Joel." She had earlier told the inquest she believed Cauchi was not psychotic during the attack and that medication would not have prevented the tragedy. Dr Boros-Lavack said the attacks may have been "due to his sexual frustration, pornography and hatred towards women". But the next day, she withdrew that evidence, saying it was simply "conjecture" and she was not in a position to assess Cauchi's mental state, having not treated him since 2019. However the inquest is investigating whether Cauchi targeted specific individuals or groups. For Peter Young, the brother of Jade, the answer seemed clear. "Fuelled by his frustration with not finding a 'nice' girl to marry", his "rapid hunt found 16 victims, 14 of which were women," he told the inquest. The NSW Police Commissioner in the days after the attack said it was "obvious" to detectives that the offender had focussed on women. However, during the inquest, the homicide squad's Andrew Paul Marks said he did not believe there was evidence that Cauchi had specifically targeted women. The inquiry also heard about a number of failings or near misses in the way security, police, paramedics and the media responded to the attack. It was told that recruitment and training pressures for the security provider meant that the centre's control room operator was not "competent". At the exact moment when Cauchi stabbed his first victim, the room was unattended as she was on a toilet break. Security guard Faraz Tahir, the sole male victim of the stabbings, was working his first day on the job when he was killing trying to stop Cauchi, raising questions over the powers and protection given to personnel like him. His brother, Muzafar, told the inquest how Faraz died "with honour as a hero" and also acknowledged that Cauchi's parents had lost their son: "We know that this tragedy is not their fault." The contractor responsible for security at the shopping centre has since updated its training and policies, as well as introducing stab-proof vests for guards. Several families criticised media coverage in the wake of the attack, telling the inquiry they hoped the industry would reflect on how they should report sensitive stories so as not to further traumatise those affected. After weeks of evidence, the inquest was adjourned on Thursday with NSW state coroner Teresa O'Sullivan expected to deliver her recommendations by the end of the year. At the start of the inquest, O'Sullivan said the hearings weren't about who was to blame for the attacks, but rather to "identify potential opportunities for reform or improvement to enable such events to be avoided in the future". "I want the families to know their loved ones will not be lost in this process." Elizabeth Young, though, told the court, for her, "nothing good" will come from the inquest. "At 74, I have lost my way in life," she said, describing the crippling impact of the killings. But she said the action the country needed to take was already obvious to her. "My daughter was murdered by an unmedicated, chronic schizophrenic... who had in his possession knives designed for killing. "[This is] another cry out to an Australia that doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that what happened... is essentially the catastrophic consequence of years of neglect of, and within, our mental health systems."
West Australian
26-05-2025
- West Australian
Security staff need counselling, can't return to work after Westfield Bondi Junction attack
Some security staff still require counselling and haven't been able to return to work at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre following the 2024 stabbing rampage, an inquest has been told. Joel Cauchi stabbed 16 people and killed Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Faraz Ahmed Tahir, Ashlee Good, Jade Young and Pikria Darchia at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024, before he was then shot dead by police. A coronial inquest into the attack was told some security staff hadn't been able to return to work at the shopping centre following the tragedy. The shopping centre is operated by Scentre Group, which uses subcontractors Falkon and Glad Group. Glad chief executive Steve Iloski told the inquest that several staff had been affected by the attack and needed counselling and support from the Employee Assistance Program. He said Glad was doing 'everything in our power' to get them back on their feet. 'I take that quite serious,' Mr Iloski told the court. 'Our priority is the welfare of our staff … We had counselling services, financial aid that was acquired for the staff to continue actively in life in general.' He paid tribute to security guard Mr Tahir, who was killed during his first day on the job at the shopping centre. 'That day changed lives, it took lives (in) the cruellest of circumstances,' Mr Iloski said. 'Faraz Tahir was clearly so loved by his family, friends, community, and I can confidently say that his loss …(has) been felt deeply across Glad Group and the security industry.' He also extended his thoughts to Mr Tahir's family as well as the families of the five other victims and surviving security guard Muhammad Taha. 'You were injured trying to protect others … We owe you our deepest respect and gratitude,' he said. Mr Iloski said the tragedy had 'hit home' for him even though he wasn't present on the day. 'I really am sorry, what's happened on that day – it's heart wrenching,' he told the court. 'I've got young kids … it really hits home. As a leader, we've always taken security and safety as paramount. 'The team did the best they could, I don't think anything would've changed that day unfortunately. 'Mr Cauchi … his intent was very clear 'I'm very sorry, and we take this quite seriously.' The responses and policies of Scentre and Glad have been probed at length over the course of the inquest, which entered its fifth and final week on Monday morning. This included the competency of the sole control room operator, who can only be known as CR1, rostered to the CCTV control room on the day of the attack. The court was earlier told how she failed to answer questions related to an active armed offender on a competency checklist weeks before her training was signed off in January 2024 and how she went to the bathroom 40 seconds before Cauchi stabbed his first victim, leaving the room unmonitored. Cauchi had attacked eight people by the time she re-entered, with all 16 people stabbed by the time another security employee (known as CR2) entered the room about 3.36pm. Security expert Scott Wilson told the court that he didn't feel CR1 performed her job adequately on the day. Public announcements were also not made until about 20 minutes after the first victim was stabbed. When they were finally made about 3.52pm, they were done from a room external to the CCTV control room, and people were unsure whether the person making them (CR1) was under duress as she sounded 'distressed and distraught', the court was told. An automated PA system had since been put in place at the shopping centre, along with a raft of other measures, the court was told. Mr Iloski told the court that the inquest has been 'very valuable', and while some of the evidence had been 'hard' for team members, scrutiny was important. mental health support
Perth Now
23-05-2025
- Health
- Perth Now
Mall stabbing response a 'near miss', inquest told
Miscommunication between emergency providers who responded to the Bondi stabbing tragedy has been labelled as a "near miss" by medical experts. Joel Cauchi was experiencing psychotic symptoms when he went on a stabbing spree at Sydney's Bondi Junction Westfield on April 13, 2024. The 40-year-old killed six people and injured 10 others before he was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott. Confusion and miscommunication about a potential second offender led NSW Ambulance assistant commissioner Brent Armitage to declare the mall a "hot zone" about 4.30pm. This meant paramedics were barred from entering the complex. Mr Armitage was acting on flawed information that was not provided in a timely manner, a NSW Ambulance medical executive told the Bondi stabbings' inquest on Friday. "It does represent a near miss and is therefore an important learning opportunity," Thomas Evens said. All victims had already been removed from the mall so the declaration did not affect any medical outcomes. But Dr Evens and other emergency doctors on an expert panel said miscommunication between providers can delay victims' care. The panel put forward a framework developed in the United Kingdom called JESIP, focusing on how emergency providers can best work together to respond to emergencies. They were careful to acknowledge their suggestions were made in hindsight and their report included critiques, not criticism. While describing the "exceptionally high standard" of care, physician Phillip Cowburn called the zoning system a dogmatic approach. "The zones are always too big, they are left in place for too long and patients come into harm as a result," he said. All emergency service providers should be trained in the "10 Second Triage" system, where they can quickly identify patients who need support in a rapidly unfolding incident, the panel said. Meanwhile, the identity of the private psychiatrist who treated Cauchi for almost a decade has been revealed after a court order protecting her identity was lifted. Andrea Boros-Lavack formed a plan to wean Cauchi off medication that he had successfully used since being diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia as a teen. Cauchi was not taking any more medication by mid-2019 and stopped seeing a psychiatrist regularly after moving from Toowoomba to Brisbane in early 2020. Around this time, his mother raised concerns about Cauchi expressing feelings of "being under satanic control" and other behavioural changes. An expert panel of psychiatrists agreed he displayed concerning behaviour in the years leading up to the incident. "They suggest he is having relapse," Professor Anthony Harris said on Thursday. "There are several red flags and the most important ones are the ones concerned by his mother who knows most about his condition," Professor Merete Nordentoft said. The inquest continues. Lifeline 13 11 14 beyondblue 1300 22 4636
