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Yahoo
a day 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."
Yahoo
2 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."
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Bondi stabbing: How killer Joel Cauchi slipped through the cracks
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 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 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. Shopping centre stabbings shock nation 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 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 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 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 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 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. Missed opportunities for intervention 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 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 the age of 17, in 2001, Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia and soon started taking medication for his 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 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 weaned him off clozapine entirely in 2018 and Cauchi also stopped taking medication to treat his obsessive-compulsive disorder the year after, she 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 inquest heard from medical professionals who said that in most cases, patients coming off antipsychotic medications transition to another one, rather than ceasing treatment 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 2020, Cauchi left his family home, moved to Brisbane and stopped seeing Dr 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 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 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 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 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 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 later, police in Sydney found Cauchi sleeping rough near a road after being called by a concerned 2024 Cauchi's mental health had deteriorated, he was homeless, and isolated from his family. Three minutes that changed everything The inquest looked closely at Cauchi's mental health treatment in Queensland, with a panel of five psychiatrists tasked with reviewing 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 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 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 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 the inquest is investigating whether Cauchi targeted specific individuals or 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 NSW Police Commissioner in the days after the attack said it was "obvious" to detectives that the offender had focussed on during the inquest, the homicide squad's Andrew Paul Marks said he did not believe there was evidence that Cauchi had specifically targeted inquiry also heard about a number of failings or near misses in the way security, police, paramedics and the media responded to the 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 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 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. Lessons to be learnt 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 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 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."
Scotsman
2 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
Award-winning Scottish street food bar and restaurant with ‘best Sunday roast' announces closure
An award-winning restaurant and bar in Edinburgh will close at the end of the month. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Junk in Newington in Edinburgh is set to close for good on Saturday 31 May. The restaurant and bar grew from a small street food business, which was named best street food at the 2022 British Street Food Awards. Junk are Cam and Jade, who started their business as a blog, which developed into a recipe site that then led to their street food venture within a few months in 2022. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Junk restaurant and bar opened in Newington later that year, but despite rave reviews, the premises will close due to the current climate. Junk restaurant and bar in Newington will close this weekend | Junk Posting on their social media the team wrote: 'Dearest Friends, Family and Guests, 'We are truly devastated to announce the closure of Junk, Bar & Restaurant. We will be opening our doors for the final time this Saturday, 31st May. 'For the past three years, we have poured every ounce of our lives into this business — working countless hours each and every day to try to make it a success. Although we have failed, we are immensely proud of what we have achieved, and so grateful to our incredible team, past and present, for their passion, hard work, and belief they have shared with us every step of the way. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We started with very little — selling some wee bits in a gazebo one summer, before building and launching a restaurant from scratch. We learned to tile, floor, grout, screed, paint, and plaster. Creating a space that housed our wee dream. All of this was done alongside our talented friend and Head Chef, Stu, who's been with us from day one. We're eternally grateful for your dedication Stuggy. 'To all who have supported us over the last few years, our incredible friends and family, as well as you wonderful folks that have come to eat our Junk - Thank You! Your feedback, kind words, and enthusiasm has pushed us forward to deliver what we believed was great food and service. You helped us realise our dream and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your love and support has meant the world to us. 'To the restaurants still managing to turn a profit in this climate — we commend you. The odds have been firmly stacked against us all. Through passion and sheer hope, we've kept our doors open as long as we possibly could. The heartbreaking reality is that we're one of many businesses either struggling or being forced to close. Please do what you can, if you can, to support local. Our biggest question is: at what point will the leaders of our government and country take action, implement meaningful change, and start supporting small, independent businesses? 'Our final service will be this coming Saturday, 31st May. We'd love for you to come down in these next few days, raise a dram with us, and send Junk off with a bang.'
Time Out
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Mighty Hoopla 2025 in Brockwell Park: set times, full lineup, tickets and everything you need to know
Following a barnstorming few days of festivals over the bank holiday weekend (May 23-26), up next among the music festivals in south London's Brockwell Park is Mighty Hoopla. The two-day pop fest will return this weekend (May 31-June 1) headlined by superstars Ke$ha and Ciara. Mighty Hoopla bills itself as the UK's biggest pop festival, and the day festival double-header is famed for its inclusivity, freedom and fun. Beyond the headliners, this year's Hoopla lineup is stacked as ever, featuring the likes of Jade, Jojo, Loreen, Erika Jayne and many, many more. Heading to one (or both) days of Mighty Hoopla 2025? Here's everything you need to know about the festival, from the full lineup and set times to the weather forecast. When and where is Mighty Hoopla? Mighty Hoopla 2025 will take place at Brockwell Park in south London, on Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1. Timings On both days, doors will open at midday, and last entry is 8pm. On Saturday the music will end at 10.30pm, while on Sunday it'll stop at 10pm. What's the full Mighty Hoopla 2025 lineup and set times? Saturday May 31 Main Stage 2pm-2.30pm – Daphne and Celeste 3.15pm-4pm – Omar Rudberg 4.45pm-5.30pm – Jamelia 6.15pm-7pm – Jojo 7.45pm-8.30pm – Jade 9.15pm-10.15pm – Ciara Hayu Arena 1.30pm-2pm – Booty Luv 2.30pm-3pm – Tom Aspaul 3.30pm-4pm – Amy Studt 5.40pm-5pm – Vincint 5.45pm-6.25pm – A*Teens 7.10pm-7.40pm – Mutya Buena 8.20pm-9.05pm – Daniel Bedingfield The Bump Midday-1.15pm – Gig Buddies Presents: Club Soda 1.15pm-2.55pm – UOKHUN? 3pm-3.40pm – Tsatsamis 4pm-4.40pm – Tom Rasmussen 6pm-6.40pm – Allie X 6.50pm-8pm – Kiddy Smile 8pm-9.15pm – CC:DISCO 9.15pm-10.30pm – Artwork The Pleasure Palace 12.15pm-1pm – Move Your Frame 1pm-2pm – A Grand Cabaret Show feat Herr & Me, Slaystation and Gallifrey Cabaret 2pm-3pm – The London Gay Big Band 3pm-4pm – The George Michael Disco 4pm-5pm – Bop to the Top The Disney Hour 5pm-6pm – Hot To Go Pink Pop Party 6pm-6.45pm – Una Healy 6.45pm-7.45pm – The Drag Hour feat Jimbo Drag Clown, Ginger Johnson and Miss Leigh Ding 7.45pm-8.45pm – Bongo's Bingo The Rave Round 8.45pm-9.45pm – The Artful Dodger The Birdcage 12.15pm-12.50pm – Queerly Come Dancing 1.15pm-1.45pm – Alice, Alan and The Shroom 2pm-2.45pm – Pecs Drag Kings 2.50pm-3pm – SAY 3pm-3.50pm – Paradise 3.50pm-4.30pm – Haus of Fatale 4.30-4.45pm – Black Peppa 5pm-6pm – The Cocoa Butter Club 6.05pm-7pm – Vula & Friends 7pm-9pm – Slicc N Thicc Queertopia 1.15pm-1.35pm – T Priestly 2pm-2.25pm – Sans Soucis 2.45pm-3.10pm – James Indigo 3.35pm-3.55pm – Rom 1 4.20-4.45pm – Majur 5.15pm-5.45pm – Crystal Murray 6.15pm-6.40pm – Jude York 7.05pm-7.45pm – Hannah Diamond Working Them's Club 1.30pm-2pm – Crayola the Queen 2pm-2.30pm – The Rodeo Queens 3pm-3.30pm – Barbs Bingo 3.30pm-4pm – Magic Dyke 4pm-5pm – Sue Veneers 5pm-5.30pm – Séayoncé 5.30pm-6pm – PMBC Musicals 6pm-6.30pm – Margo Is Charli 6.30pm-8.30pm – Oli Keens Hay Girl Hay 12.30pm-2pm – Queer Line Dancing 2pm-6.30pm – Queer Cxntry 6.30pm-7.30pm – Taylor Trash Red Bull Dance Your Style 1pm-2.30pm – Ivicore 3pm-4pm – Nadine Noor 4.30pm-5.45pm – Almass Badat 6.15pm-7.45pm – Donnie Sunshine House of Schuh 12.30pm-3.25pm – House of Schuh 4pm-7.05pm – Get Busy Sunday June 1 Main Stage 2.25pm-3.05pm – Vengaboys 3.35pm-4.05pm – Alice Chater 4.35pm-5.05pm – Samantha Mumba 5.30pm-5.45pm – Heidi Montag 6.05pm-6.35pm – Erika Jayne 7pm-7.20pm – Lulu 7.55pm-8.35pm – Loreen 9.15pm-10.15pm – Ke$ha Hayu Arena 1.45pm-2.15pm – Supersister 3pm-3.30pm – Queen Priyanka 4.10pm-4.30pm – Wicked 5.10pm-5.40pm – Lemar 6.20pm-6.50pm – Pixie Lott 7.20pm-7.50pm – G Flip 8.25pm-9.15pm – Kate Nash & RPCO The Bump 12.30pm-2.30pm – Polyglamourous 2.45pm-3.25pm – Sarah Nimmo 3.45pm-4.25pm – Anna Prior 4.45pm-5.20pm – Elkka 5.45pm-6.30pm – Lion Babe 6.35pm-7.45pm – The Illustrious Blacks 7.45pm-9pm – Girls Don't Sync 9pm-10.15pm – Jayda G The Pleasure Palace 12.30pm-1.15pm – Move Your Frame 1.15pm-2pm – The Groove Chorus 2pm-3pm – Kinky Cabaret 3pm-3.45pm – Barrioke 3.45pm-4.45pm – We Are Still Young – Emo Hour 4.45pm-5.45pm – Blackstage feat Gal Pals – The Pole Dancing Hour 5.45pm-6.45pm – Sweat – The Brat Hour 6.45pm-7.45pm – The Drag Hour feat Danny Beard, Bimini, Kyran Thrax and Miss Leigh Ding 7.45pm-8.45pm – Beefmince 8.45pm-9.45pm – The End of the World Party – Alien Invasion The Birdcage 1pm-1.45pm – Bollyqueer 2pm-2.45pm – Lycra '80s Party 3pm-3.15pm – Mimi Chanel 3.20-4.05pm – Kunst Kabaret 4.10pm-5.05pm – House of Pantha 5.20pm-6.05pm – Smooch 6.05pm-7.05pm – Seasoned 7.05pm-8.30pm – Queer Bruk Queertopia 12.45pm-1pm – Ciel at Centre 1.25pm-1.45pm – Justin Peng 2.10pm-2.30pm – Griffin 3.05pm-3.30pm – Charlieeeee 3.55pm-4.20pm – Sounds Queer 4.45pm-5.10pm – Bentley Robles 5.40pm-6.10pm – Beks 6.40pm-7.05pm – Inji 7.30pm-8.15pm – Moonchild Sanelly Working Them's Club 1pm-1.30pm – Boudior Burlesque 2pm-2.30pm – Miss Ellaneous 3pm-3.30pm – UKG-Spot 4pm-4.45pm – Slav 4 U 5.30pm-6pm – La Grand Karaoke 6pm-7pm – Girl, Dance 7pm-9pm – Hard Cock Life Hay Girl Hay 12.30pm-2pm – Queer Line Dancing 2pm-6.30pm – Queer Cxntry 6.30pm-7.30pm – Taylor Trash Red Bull Dance Your Style 1.30pm-3.10pm – Muva T 3.35pm-5.05pm – Lagoon Femshayma 5.35pm-6.35pm – Sippin' T 7pm-8pm – Melle Brown House of Schuh 12.30pm-4.05pm – House of Schuh 4.30pm-7.15pm – Get Busy All timings from the Mighty Hoopla app, and subject to change. How to get to Mighty Hoopla festival Punters are advised not to drive to the fest, as there is no parking. Instead Hoopla attendees are being asked to take public transport. The nearest tube is Brixton (10 min walk) and the closest train is Herne Hill (2 min walk). What's the weather looking like? On Saturday London will still be in the throes of a 'mini heatwave', with sunny skies and temperatures hitting a scorching 25C. Sunday won't be quite so balmy, with more clouds and highs of only 21C. There's a slightly higher chance of rain but not exactly a high chance – with 10 percent chance of precipitation. Are there any tickets left for Mighty Hoopla? Mighty Hoopla 2025 is officially sold out. However, you can pick up Saturday, Sunday and weekend tickets through official resale partner Tixel here. Afterparties There are several unofficial Mighty Hoopla afterparties that'll keep the party going into the early hours. There'll be Sweat at the Clapham Grand (Saturday, tickets here) and parties at Clapham's The Bridge (Saturday, find out more), The Duke of Edinburgh pub (Saturday, find out more) and Effra Social (Sunday, find out more). Are Brockwell Park's day festivals definitely still going ahead? They certainly are! For 2025, anyway. The last month or so has put Brockwell Park's day festivals in the spotlight, with anti-festival campaigners Protect Brockwell Park on the one side and Lambeth Council and festival promoters Brockwell Live (supported by community group SayYesLambeth) on the other. Following a court decision that ruled the festivals didn't have the correct planning permission, Brockwell Live released a statement saying the events will go ahead.
