Lindt siege: ‘I should have been inside the Lindt Cafe that day’ reveals Maria Twomey

TWO years on from the deadly Lindt Cafe siege, Maria Twomey has revealed she narrowly avoided being caught in the tragedy — purely because she refused her boss’ request for a hot chocolate.

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TWO years ago at 9:30am, Maria Twomey should have been ordering her boss’s hot chocolate from the Lindt cafe.

Except on that fateful day, in a rare act of defiance, Ms Twomey said no. Instead, she watched as the Siege unfolded from her office in the Reserve Bank building next door.

The 58-year-old accountant from Wentworth Chambers said she refused the coffee order to look out for her boss’s waistline.

Maria Twomey was originally set to make a pick up from the Lindt Cafe two years ago — the same day a gunman stormed the building. Picture: Richard Dobson

Two years have gone by since Man Haron Monis stormed the Martin Place Lindt Cafe and took hostages. Picture: Richard Dobson

“Two years ago I was supposed to get my boss his hot chocolate,” Ms Twomey, from Woolhara, said.

“But we’d been to a Christmas party the day before and I thought he’d had enough calories for the weekend and I refused to go.”

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Marcia Mikhael and Katrina Dawson were forced to brandish an Islamic flag at the window of the cafe during the siege. Picture: Channel 7.

“It was the first time I didn’t do what I was told. If I had gone, I would have been a hostage in the siege.”

Ms Twomey told The Daily Telegraph she didn’t realise how significant that coffee order was until she was standing in the cafe two years on from the siege.

Shots taken from the forensic evidence presented to the Lindt Siege inquiry, demonstrating the effects of a sniper’s bullet on 6mm glass like Lindt’s windows.

Man Haron Monis entered the cafe armed with a sawn-off shotgun.

“Wow here I am at 9.30am again. Working in the chambers, we frequently visit the Lindt cafe. It was just pot luck who happened to be there,” she said.

“We all felt uneasy going in there when it first reopened. Now we are comfortable,” she said.

“For quite a few months, every time I walked in there I would case the room and before I ordered I would scan the room and look over my shoulder because I couldn’t help myself.”

The anniversary is also a distressing time for Ms Twomey because she remembers working near

Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson was slain by the gunman just before tactical police stormed the building. Picture: Channel 7

Katrina Dawson, who worked in nearby Selbourne chambers.

“I only knew her because we worked on the other side to her chambers. It was very distressing because it could have been any one of us at work. “

Returning to the Lindt Cafe two years on, Ms Twomey said she could have easily been in Ms Dawson’s shoes. Picture: Richard Dobson

Katrina Dawson was probably killed by a stray police bullet or shrapnel.

Ms Dawson was slain by police bullets as officers stormed the cafe.

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“Life goes on but you look back with great sadness.”

The Sydney siege went for 17 hours from December 15-16, 2014, after Man Haron Monis stormed the Lindt chocolate cafe in Martin Place and took 17 people hostage including cafe staff.

The siege ended with tactical officers stormed the building.

Monis was armed with a shotgun and a flag, linked to extremist groups, when he stormed the cafe at 10am.

Monis, 49, was on bail for accessory to murder, had previously sent offensive letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers, calling them murderers and had also been charged with sexual assault.

Tori Johnson.

Gunman Man Haron Monis. Picture: AAP

A public service will be held to commemorate the second anniversary of the attack and remember Ms Dawson and Tori Johnson, who was shot by Monis.

The Service will be held at St Stephen’s Uniting Church in Macquarie St from 12:30pm, Thursday.