The man responsible for the mass murder at Westfield Bondi Junction flagged an interest in guns, frequented strip clubs and made repeated attempts to meet people in the weeks and months leading up to Saturday’s rampage.

Police disclosed that Toowoomba man Joel Cauchi, 40, had been diagnosed with a mental illness when he was 17 – believed to be schizophrenia – but that his health declined in recent years, and he had been sleeping in a car.