17-05-2025
Witnesses defend interactions with Joel Cauchi amid Bondi Junction stabbing inquest
Multiple witnesses giving evidence in the Bondi Junction stabbing inquest have reiterated the "benefit of hindsight" in revisiting and defending their interactions with Joel Cauchi in the lead-up to the 2024 attack.
The five-week coronial inquest has heard from a number of key witnesses about Cauchi's stabbing rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13 last year.
WARNING: This story contains content that readers may find distressing.
Sixteen people were stabbed, six fatally — Dawn Singleton, Jade Young, Yixuan Cheng, Ashlee Good, security guard Faraz Tahir and Pikria Darchia.
Dr A, a psychiatrist who treated Cauchi between 2012 and 2020, was questioned about the decision to take Cauchi off his antipsychotic medication completely for his schizophrenia diagnosis.
Dr A's comments came amid a tense day of her providing evidence.
A separate psychiatrist also faced questions in week three of the inquest after providing Cauchi with a medical certificate in 2021 to assist in his quest to hold a gun licence.
Dr C, who also cannot be identified for legal reasons, provided the certificate for Cauchi, though the Bondi stabber never followed up with completing the licence application.
In the medical certificate, Dr C had written, "He does not pose an imminent risk to himself or others at this stage."
"I was under the opinion he was very low risk to himself and others at that point," Dr C reflected in court.
"It is very difficult for us in clinical practice to predict on future risk."
Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre manager Joseph Gaerlan also defended his performance in the emergency response role on the day of the attack.
"I did the best I could with the information I had," he said.
"If I reflect back on how I was at that time, I was one person trying to enact those duties.
"I now have that hindsight which wasn't available to me at the time on the day."
Under cross-examination by Sue Chrysanthou SC, who represents some of the victims' families, Mr Gaerlan was asked if he believed he was appropriately trained and prepared to carry out his role at the time.
"Yes I do," he replied and doubled down when pressed further by Ms Chrysanthou.
Mr Gaerlan was also asked why he personally did not contact police after entering the CCTV room and watching the footage minutes after the attack.
A more junior member of the team, a CCTV control room operator, was asked to contact "blue lights".
"I can answer that with the benefit of hindsight today, of course.
"There's a lot of things that I think I would have loved to have done differently. As I mentioned though, it was so fast-moving," Mr Gaerlan said.
A Queensland Police constable — who was called to Cauchi's family home in 2023 over a knife collection dispute — echoed a similar sentiment when providing her evidence.
The constable was asked if the "complex" interaction with Cauchi was "a missed opportunity to link Joel back into the mental health service".
The constable believed Cauchi was not exhibiting signs of aggression, and there had been nothing to show he was a threat to himself.
"I don't know what Joel's baseline is. I don't know who he was when he was medicated.
"I don't know who he was when he was not medicated, and I don't know where he was in the decline."
She added: "Everyone is doing the best that they can with what they have, where they are."
Counsel Assisting the Coroner Peggy Dwyer SC encouraged individuals providing evidence to give a "frank and full account of their experience".
"The goal of this inquest is to work out what happened, and why, in order to identify any gaps in systems and processes, and to learn valuable lessons from any mistakes that were made."
Dr Dwyer said the coronial inquest was not interested "to single out any single individual who was doing their best in a fallible system that was put to the test by Mr Cauchi's acts of violence".
