Bondi Beach bones inquest: paranoid Thomas Hunt told partner to look after children
A Kiwi father whose remains washed up on Bondi Beach in 2017 suffered paranoid delusions and set fire to his hotel room before his death, an inquest heard.
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Amongst a smouldering mattress and a series of “booby traps” laid in the Sydney hotel room of a psychotic man, firefighters found a child’s teddy bear which played the recorded message: “Merry Christmas dad, we love you.”
The toy’s stuffing had been ripped out, and Kiwi father Thomas Hunt’s remains washed up on Bondi Beach two weeks later in April 2017, an inquest into his death heard.
The New Zealander had been suffering paranoid delusions in the lead up to his March disappearance, hearing “Maori spirits” and vowing to kill his own dad who he believed was a white supremacist, the NSW Coroners Court heard on Monday.
The inquest will investigate why attending NSW Ambulance paramedics did not take Mr Hunt to hospital when his concerned mum called triple-zero the night before he went missing, as well as the adequacy of subsequent search efforts by NSW Police.
The UK-born man labelled his dad Graham a Klu Klux Klan member and a terrorist who was working with police to “bring him down,” counsel assisting Christine Melis told the Lidcombe hearing.
The day he went missing, Mr Hunt told his partner Natasha Mills he was not coming back and to look after their two children.
Mr Hunt checked himself into Hotel Bondi on March 22, 2017, and the next day he likely set fire to a mattress in his room while laying three other “booby traps,” the court heard.
“The wooden wardrobe had the word ‘Bandidos’ carved into it and the window which led to the internal fire stairs was broken,” Ms Melis said.
A Superman teddy bear was also found with its stuffing removed next to the bathroom’s basin.
Ms Mills later told police that her partner left home with the bear, which had a personalised recorded message inside one of the paws when pressed which said: “Merry Christmas dad, we love you.”
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Around 9pm on April 4, 2017, a man was strolling along Bondi Beach when he made the grisly discovery of a human skeleton. DNA tests linked the decomposing carcass to Mr Hunt, but an autopsy report could not determine the cause of his death.
Despite air, land and water searches, no further clues were found, Ms Melis said.
But a forensic pathologist believes Mr Hunt could have drowned after jumping into the ocean off a nearby cliff, after which his body may have become submerged underneath a rock before washing to the beach’s shoreline.
The flooring contractor, who had struggled with depression and post traumatic stress disorder, had become absorbed with conspiracy theories prior to leaving Auckland for western Sydney in 2015 and was paranoid that bikie gangs and the police were after him, the court heard.
On March 20, Mr Hunt’s father Graham had returned to their Jordan Springs home to find his son in the driveway making threats with a golf club.
Three days later, Thomas Hunt texted his father nonsensical rants referring to listening devices and saying: “tell your short, English-looking mate with the Makita grinds and utensils he better bring his A game.”
On March 23 his mother Amanda also answered a troubling call on her husband’s phone and immediately informed Penrith Police Station that Thomas Hunt had rung from a landline at Hotel Bondi, noting his mental state was deteriorating.
“There was no police action in response to this call,” Ms Melis said.
After hearing nothing from cops, Graham Hunt drove two hours to speak with Hotel Bondi staff, who confirmed his son was staying at the hotel, the inquest heard.
But Graham Hunt said that after notifying officers at a nearby police station 200 metres away around 2.10pm, he was told no one could help him until 3pm when a certain policeman handling the case came on duty.
By 3.16pm a fire alarm went off at Hotel Bondi, but staff couldn’t get inside Thomas Hunt’s room, where a mattress was engulfed in flames and furniture was piled up against the door.
Fire & Rescue workers gained access through a smashed window but encountered several booby traps within the room, which were made from a power cord that had been stripped back to expose the active circuit with bare wires attached to the metal door handle.
A sprinkler system had extinguished the flames, but Thomas Hunt was nowhere to be seen.
The inquiry continues.