Lindt inquest: Police ‘couldn’t see Lindt Cafe during siege’
POLICE making the crucial decisions about the management of the Lindt Cafe siege had no vision from the scene — not even via TV sets — for hours, it has been revealed.
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POLICE making the crucial decisions about the management of the Lindt Cafe siege had no vision from the scene — not even via TV sets — for hours, it has been revealed.
It wasn’t until about 8pm, 10 hours after the siege began, that a portable monitor was set up at the forward command post showing a live feed from a camera inside the Channel Seven building immediately opposite the Martin Place cafe, the inquest has been told today.
The inquest has heard the “FOC” was where police and tactical operations unit commanders would decide whether to activate the emergency action plan to storm the cafe if hostages were in imminent danger of death of serious injury from the gunman Man Monis.
But the Superintendent who was in charge of the command centre for most of the daylight hours on December 15, 2014, said they had no access at the FOC to any vision, including footage from City of Sydney CCTV cameras.
One CCTV camera, mounted on the corner of Phillip Street would have allowed them to see some way into the cafe.
When the portable monitor was finally erected, it was dark or almost dark outside and there was little to be seen anyway, the inquest heard.
On top of that, the police negotiators still trying to talk directly to Monis were unable to see the monitor.
The Superintendent, who cannot be identified, said there had been technical difficulties on the day but said there was never any written plan covering what electronics communications would be made available at the FOC, which was close to Martin Place but had no views into the
area.
The POC — or main Police Operations Centre — which was further away in the city, had access to the CCTV footage and the Channel 7 footage. But crucial decisions were not made from that centre.
The Superintendent said he did not even see the five hostages escape during the daylight hours and was later told about them.
He said he did not think the escape should have triggered the emergency action plan, which was executed at 2.13am, after Monis killed cafe manager Tori Johnson.
Barrister Katrina Dawson was killed by the fragment of a police bullet.
The officer said direct vision of the cafe during the day had not been pivotal but it would have been valuable.
The inquest in Sydney continues.
RELATED ARTICLES: MARTIN PLACE SIEGE
• As it happened: How the siege unfolded
• Gunman among three dead as gunfight brings an end to siege
• Hostage down! Moment police stormed cafe
• Identifying the hostages of the siege
• Flower tributes at Martin Place
• Hero Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson ‘was an amazing person’
• Katrina Dawson was a barrister, friend, colleague and mother of three
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