Lindt siege inquest: Hostage’s desperate calls went unanswered by police three times

A HOSTAGE’S calls with demands from the gunman went unanswered three times in the final hours of the deadly siege, an inquest has heard.

Lindt siege survivor Selina Win Pe, pictured at last year’s anniversary ceremony, made three unanswered calls to police negotiators during the crisis. Picture: Dylan Robinson

THREE calls from an increasingly desperate hostage in the Lindt cafe went unanswered by police negotiators.

Selina Win Pe’s calls with demands from the gunman Man Monis went unanswered at 12.30am, 12.32am and 12.37am in the final hours of the deadly siege on December 16, 2014, an inquest into the incidence was told on Thursday.

The inquest heard a decision not to call that negotiator — codenamed Mat1 — to give evidence had been reversed after consultation with the families of siege victims Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson.

Selina Win Pe was forced on camera during the siege to repeat the demands of gunman Man Monis.

The families want him to be questioned about the three unanswered calls, as well as what he saw when Monis fired the first shot at fleeing hostages at 2.03am and when Monis shot Mr Johnson dead at 2.13am.

In other evidence, the team leader of the negotiators that night, a detective senior sergeant codenamed Reg, said he had undertaken “Islam 101” training but had never dealt with a real terrorist or more than three hostages before.

Mat1 was the primary night-time negotiator on December 15 and 16, and while he did not answer those three calls from Ms Win Pe, he did talk to her on other occasions during that short time period, counsel assisting the inquest Jason Downing said.

She passed on a demand that Monis wanted the lights in Martin Place turned off. Police were considering acceding to the demand when, at 12.50am, Ms Win Pe called triple-0 and told the operator: “He’s (Monis) almost going to shoot me. He’s losing his patience.”

Selina Win Pe leaves the siege inquest. Picture: Jeremy Piper

At the time there were four trained negotiators at the triple-0 headquarters at Tuggerah. The inquest yesterday heard from the first of the negotiator witnesses.

Giving his evidence from a closed room with no vision available for security reasons, Reg said he completed a “three-year” negotiation program in the late 1990s which consisted of one block of two weeks and two blocks of one week.

In 2002, 2004 and 2008, he did further counter-terrorism negotiators courses.

He told the inquest that in those years not everybody was familiar with Islam, and religious training was provided via outside presentations.

Hostages run toward police with their hands up during the siege.

He confirmed negotiators never spoke directly to Monis and said he had instructed his negotiators shortly after 10.20am, just 30 minutes into the siege, to use a dictaphone to record all negotiations. That was not done until 1.15pm.

He said when it was revealed there was a gunman with a backpack and an Islamic flag holding a large number of people hostage, it was clear the siege was a unique challenge.

The inquest heard that by 1.19pm on December 15, a key objective of the negotiating team was identified as “drill down type of bomb” — to identify what explosive Monis was claiming he was carrying in the black backpack.

The inquest continues.