Latest news with #JadeYoung
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
‘I hurt so terribly': after weeks of detail, Bondi Junction inquest ends with reminder of families' anguish
Elizabeth Young has had her daughter's Chinese name, Meh Yuk, tattooed onto her left arm. 'Beautiful Jade, the name her grandparents gave her,' the heartbroken mother told the New South Wales coroner's court on Thursday, sitting close by her dog, Teddy, in the witness box. Jade Young, 47, was killed by Joel Cauchi in Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April 2024. The architect had been shopping with her daughter. Elizabeth's was the first family statement made on the final day of the coronial inquest into the shopping centre stabbing rampage that claimed six lives. It ended only when Cauchi, who had schizophrenia, was shot and killed by police inspector Amy Scott. Over 20 hearing days, the inquest heard from 50 witnesses. The brief contained 51 volumes and 8,000 witness statements over 40,000 pages. On the final morning, throughout the packed courtroom, overflow court and media room of the Lidcombe courts complex, boxes of tissues had been placed within easy reach. Unlike the 'carefully measured objectivity' of the court proceedings, Elizabeth said, her words were a 'distillation and a manifestation of anguish'. 'I hurt so terribly that our lovely, loving, clever, compassionate, thoughtful, slightly goofy, funny, gentle girl no longer has the chance to be, to exist in the now,' she said, flanked by her husband, Ivan, son, Peter, and son-in-law, Noel McLaughlin. 'The moment he casually plunged that blade into Jade, our ordinary lives were shattered. I remember too easily, too often, with instant, nightmarish recall … that she is dead. 'I long for her.' Over the five weeks of the inquest, much has been said about the minutiae of active armed offender incidents, security protocols, emergency responses and the erstwhile medication regimen of a man who killed and injured 16 people in the 'floridly psychotic' last five minutes of his life. This week, state coroner Teresa O'Sullivan heard a side of the day's horrors that had so far remained largely out of sight, as, one by one, the family and loved ones of the murdered had their say. The parents of Yixuan Cheng, 27, described their grief as a 'piercing, bone-deep, soul crushing agony that is beyond description, that follows you like a shadow'. In a statement read in court by their barrister, Daniel Roff, Jun Xing and Pengfei Cheng described losing their only child, who had been 'thriving' as a student in Sydney. The last time they saw her was the month before her death. 'Yixuan was the treasure of our lives … We aged overnight, our hair turned grey. We never had the chance to tell her that being her mother and father were the greatest gifts life gave us.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Roff fought back tears as he read, as did barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, who read statements from the family of 38-year-old Ashlee Good. Muzafar Ahmad Tahir, the brother of Faraz Tahir, 30, told the court that Australia had given his brother a 'sense of security'. 'None of us could have imagined that such a tragedy would befall him.' The Pakistani citizen was on duty as a security guard inside Westfield Bondi Junction at the time of the attack. 'He will always be remembered as a symbol of bravery,' his brother said, adding that it was a moment of immense pride when the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called Faraz a 'national hero'. George Darchia, the son of Pikria Darchia, 55, said in a statement read out in court that his mother's loss was accompanied by 'something deeper' than regret he had not been with her. His brother, Irakli Dvali, said of the way his mother 'left this world … it breaks me'. Cauchi's family was invited to give a statement to the inquest, but did not. Thursday's remarkable testimony closed an intensely studied and poignant inquest, punctuated by startling moments. In the first week, vision displayed in court of Scott's one-minute chase and shooting of Cauchi showed her calm and control. In a compilation of CCTV and 3D reconstructions released by the court, Scott, flanked by two French bystanders and a security guard – but without a police partner or bulletproof vest – can be seen walking up an escalator, pursuing Cauchi on foot. She was nauseous, she told the court, because 'I had resigned myself to the fact that I was probably going to die'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion When Cauchi stopped, Scott stopped. Not wanting to shout within his earshot, she used silent signals to direct a woman with a pram – hiding near a large pot plant – to run. The officer then called out 'mate' to get Cauchi's attention. When he started to sprint towards her, she fired her gun three times. Two bullets hit him; one was later found in the pot plant. Scott's actions, the court heard, were 'absolutely perfect'. Westfield's security was heavily scrutinised throughout the inquest. The centre's CCTV control room – containing 954 camera views – was unstaffed for nearly the first two minutes of Cauchi's spree because its sole security room operator was using the bathroom. The controller's response when she returned was criticised during the inquest by UK security expert Scott Wilson as 'inadequate'. The court heard that paramedics' ballistic PPE was not easy to access, and that the Westfield centre was then designated a 'hot zone' by NSW Ambulance – meaning paramedics were not allowed to enterbecause of the risk of a second active armed offender, despite police already having determined Cauchi acted alone. Ultimately however, the inquest heard, the hot zone restrictions made no clinical impact that day. The lack of preparedness on some levels was perhaps a symptom of a more positive aspect of Australian life: the country is not a regular site of mass casualty events. Sydney's last major fatal active armed offender incident – the Lindt cafe siege in 2014, in which three people, including the attacker, died – was referenced several times in the inquest. Experts told the court the 'escape, hide, tell' safety mantra for terrorist attacks was not as well-known in Australia as in the UK. In court, Queensland police admitted to having missed an opportunity for intervention in 2023 when responding to Cauchi's allegations his father had stolen his knives. An email sent from one of the officers that day requested follow-up, the inquest heard, which an under-resourced mental health intervention coordinator then forgot to act on. How Cauchi came to be unmedicated for the last five years of his life was a key question for the coroner. Cauchi's mother, Michele, had raised concerns on at least seven occasions about possible early warning signs of relapse after her son was removed from his antipsychotic medication for his chronic schizophrenia in 2019. But Dr Andrea Boros-Lavack, Cauchi's private Toowoomba psychiatrist from 2012 until 2020, had repeatedly put those behavioural changes down to other factors. When she discharged him from her practice because of his move to Brisbane, Boros-Lavack did not refer Cauchi to a psychiatrist in his new home city, despite stating that he needed monthly psychiatric monitoring. While in Brisbane, he was given psychiatric approval for – but 'fortunately' did not follow through on – a gun licence. At one notable point in the inquest, Boros-Lavack stated that her former patient had not been psychotic at the time of his attack, which she believed was instead driven by 'sexual frustration, pornography and hatred towards women'. She sensationally withdrew the comments the next morning, calling them 'conjecture'. Her words nevertheless left their mark. In his statement on Thursday, Jade Young's brother, Peter, said his sister had been killed by a man whose 'rapid hunt' was 'fuelled by his frustration with not finding a 'nice' girl to marry. What a coward!' Even amid the highly technical level of detail canvassed by the inquest, barely a witness appeared untouched by the incident. On Thursday, however, their pain was dwarfed by that of the families. In some cases, media handling and coverage of the attack had heightened the heartache. In court on Thursday, the loved ones of Dawn Singleton, 25, did not make a statement – but this week, their grievances about radio host Ray Hadley mentioning Dawn's name on air before the family had formally identified her came to light in documents tendered to court. Elizabeth Young, too, described the horror of learning that images of her daughter's body had been broadcast and shared on social media. 'I learned a new phrase in the days after April 13,' she said: 'trauma porn.' For all the potential recommendations from the inquest, there was no way to make amends for her family's loss, she said. After the attack, her granddaughter – who was beside Jade when Cauchi delivered his single, catastrophic blow – drew her a plan, in blue crayon, showing exactly 'where Mummy fell'. 'Pause,' she told the court, 'and think on that.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Heartbroken mother tells inquest she's ‘lost her way' after ‘stuff of nightmares' murders at Bondi Junction
The mother of Jade Young, a victim of the Bondi Junction stabbings, has described her daughter's murder as the 'stuff of nightmares' and the result of 'years of neglect' within the mental health system. Elizabeth Young told the New South Wales coroners court on Thursday that her words were 'both a distillation and a manifestation of anguish'. She said that it 'hurt terribly' that her loving, clever, compassionate, thoughtful and 'slightly goofy' daughter 'no longer has a chance to exist – to be in the future'. 'At 74, I have lost my way in life,' Young told the court. 'The moment he casually plunged that knife into Jade, our ordinary lives were shattered.' Elizabeth Young was accompanied in court by her husband, Ivan, her son, Peter, and Jade's husband, Noel. Elizabeth's dog, Teddy, was also at the inquest. Family statements were being given during the final days of the five-week coronial inquest. Schizophrenic man Joel Cauchi, 40, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, Faraz Tahir, 30 and Jade Young, 47. He injured 10 others at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April 2024 before he was shot and killed by police officer Amy Scott. Elizabeth Young remembered laughing with her daughter about washing a blanket, sending her a photo of a perfect fairy ring of mushrooms and her final emoji message in the days before she was murdered. Jade had been shopping with her daughter at the time of the attack. Elizabeth said her granddaughter later drew 'a plan of where mummy fell' in blue crayon. 'Pause and think on that,' she told the court. Elizabeth Young described the coronial inquest as 'harrowing' and said 'some people lost sight of the truly awful fact that six people are dead'. She said an accumulation of failures over many years led to Cauchi's murderous attack. Australia 'doesn't seem to want to acknowledge what happened was … categoric … years of neglect within our mental health system', at state and federal levels, she said. 'My daughter was murdered by an unmedicated chronic schizophrenic.' Referring to the senior counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer SC, she said: 'Dr Dwyer referred to individuals doing their best in fallible systems.' 'I'm sorry, but it seems to me that my daughter and five others were killed by the cumulative failures … [of a] whole series of systems,' she said. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Elizabeth Young said if the inquest led to increased mental health funding and better security arrangements, 'all that would be good, but my daughter, my lovely, gentle daughter, is no more'. 'For me personally, no good will come from this inquest. She meant nothing to him, there is no comfort in closure, there is no way to make amends for what he took from me.' The coroners court heard Elizabeth Young couldn't stand loud places, flinches at noise, startles easily, no longer listens to music or has flowers at home, sleeps badly, was anxious about social occasions and 'dreads' Saturday afternoons. She also criticised how some members of the media had covered the attack. 'I learned a new phrase in the days after April 13: trauma porn,' she said. Peter Young, who lives in Hobart, said his sister was murdered by a man who was 'fuelled by his frustration [of] not finding a nice girl to marry – what a coward'. The five-week inquest, which began just over a year after the attacks, was scheduled to end on Friday. It has examined potential failings in Cauchi's healthcare, the preparedness of the shopping centre for an active armed offender and the response of the police, ambulance service and media.
ABC News
5 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Bondi Junction stabbing victim Jade Young's family give impact statements to coronial inquest
The grieving family of a woman murdered in the Bondi Junction stabbing has told a court the killer is a "coward" and that "no good will come from this inquest". In April last year, Joel Cauchi killed six people and injured 10 others with a knife in the Westfield shopping centre in Sydney's east. WARNING: This story contains content that readers may find distressing. The five-week inquest at the NSW Coroners Court examining the attack and how another incident can be prevented in the future is now in its final days. Elizabeth, the mother of 47-year-old victim Jade Young, said on Thursday her daughter had been "denied a future". "There is no comfort knowing she was hunted … with a pigging knife," she said. "For me personally, no good will come from this inquest. Ms Young said having sat through hours of testimony, she thought "some people have lost [the] fact that six much-loved people are dead, murdered". Ms Young said an "unmedicated, unmonitored" man with schizophrenia stabbed her daughter. "She died without knowing what was happening," she said. "He killed a woman, a mother, with her nine-year-old daughter right beside her. "She was able to draw for me a plan of level four to know exactly where her mummy [died] … in blue crayon." Ms Young said the absence of her daughter had affected her profoundly and she cannot stand noise, startles easily, no longer listens to music, sleeps badly and "dreads Saturday afternoons". "She exists in the past only." Ms Young was supported by her husband Ivan, Jade's brother Peter and Jade's pet dog Teddy. "To say I'm angered by my sister's death is an understatement," Peter Young said. "His murderous intentions are well-documented … his rapid hunt found 16 victims, 14 of which were women on that sunny afternoon," he said of Cauchi. "What a coward." He said Jade's partner Noel was with her when she was attacked and he "confronted Cauchi" and "performed CPR on his wife". "Both in her work and life, Jade exemplified goodness," he said. Oral submissions for recommendations will be heard in October, with final findings expected to be handed down before Christmas.
