5 biggest revelations from Sydney Siege inquest

THE Lindt Cafe siege survivors who took the stand this week made powerful revelations not previously heard publicly.

THEY were brought together by tragedy and this week the former hostages of the Lindt Cafe siege have started to come under the same roof again as one by one they take the stand at the inquest and relive the horror of the incident.

The inquest into the deaths arising from the siege will examine the circumstances surrounding, and issues arising in relation to, the deaths of Tori Johnson, Katrina Dawson and gunman Man Haron Monis in December 2014.

The siege survivors who took the stand this week made powerful revelations not previously heard publicly, as the scars the trauma inflicted on them became more visible through tears, choked words, deep breaths, long pauses and sudden requests for breaks.

Haunted eyes, hanging heads and downturned mouths painted a picture of ongoing suffering that no words could.

But in stark contrast to the obvious demons many of the former hostages still battle, was the sheer courage, determination, and strength of character each of them displayed throughout the ordeal and subsequent inquest.

Former hostages Jarrod Morton-Hoffman, Fiona Ma, Stefan Balafoutis, Paolo Vassallo, John O’Brien and Puspendu Ghosh were the first to testify.

Other siege survivors including Julie Taylor, who was pregnant during the siege, and Selina Win Pe, who Monis told he would shoot in “15 minutes” while holding a gun to her head, are expected to take the stand next week as the inquest continues.

These are the top five revelations about the Lindt cafe siege made by survivors who have testified at the inquest so far.

1. I SENT SECRET MESSAGES TO POLICE FROM INSIDE THE CAFE

Jarrod Morton-Hoffman.

The youngest of the hostages, Jarrod Morton-Hoffman, who was 19 at the time of the incident, has emerged as a “quiet hero” who used various tricks to communicate secret messages to police during the siege.

He told how he helped hostages escape and executed tactics to communicate secret messages to police, including passing hand-drawn cards under doors and emphasising certain words during phone calls the gunman forced him to make.

The inquest heard how Mr Morton-Hoffman helped hostages escape by muffling the sound as they fled before convincing Monis that media reports about the number of escapees were wrong.

Mr Morton-Hoffman also slipped cards with hand-drawn maps under a door to tip police off on the layout of the cafe and the whereabouts of the gunman and hostages inside.

The university student’s remarkable actions have earned him widespread praise but it appeared that even quiet heroes bear scars.

“How are you going?” counsel assisting asked Mr Morton-Hoffman.

“I’d prefer not to say, to be honest,” he responded.

And with that, Mr Morton-Hoffman had said it all.

2. GUNMAN ALMOST LET DAWSON GO

Katrina Dawson was killed during the siege.

Monis almost let Katrina Dawson and two other hostages run free from the Lindt Cafe, the inquest heard.

Just 16 hours later, Ms Dawson, a mother of three young children, was killed by a stray police bullet when Monis and the officers became involved in a shootout in the final stages of the siege.

Sydney barrister and former hostage Stefan Balafoutis was sitting at a table in the cafe with friends Ms Dawson and Julie Taylor, who was pregnant, on the morning of the siege when he first noticed the gunman.

“I heard the person I now know to be Monis say something about a bomb. I didn’t hear it very clearly, I turned around briefly and had a look at him and then turned back,” he told the inquest.

“I then heard him say sometime afterwards, ‘Everybody take out their identification.’ I took out my driver’s license and put it on the table. A very short time after that I heard Monis say, ‘You two can go.’ It appeared he was talking to Katrina and Julie.

“Katrina said, ‘Can he (Stefan) come with us,’ and he said, ‘Yes.’ All of us stood up together. I took my photo identification from the table, put it in my pocket, stood up with Katrina and Julie and we all started walking towards the main doors.

“We then walked towards those doors, I don’t remember what Monis said, but I do remember we all stopped at different places. Katrina stood so she was facing the window on Phillip Street. I can’t remember why we stopped but I assume he told us to stop. Then sometime shortly after that, I can’t remember if it was five or 10 minutes, I heard Monis ask the person he called the ‘manager’ (Tori Johnson). He said, ‘If I want to let people out how do I do that?’ Tori answered, ‘Just hit the green button and the sliding doors will open.’”

3. THE HOSTAGE MONIS WANTED DEAD

Stefan Balafoutis (white shirt) said Monis had it in for him.

Stefan Balafoutis, the third witness to take the stand, told the inquest that Monis didn’t seem to like him and had warned he “lost points”.

“(The) first (example) was when I was moved from the glass doors to cafe. (It was) while I was moved and I had my eyes closed and Fiona was leading me,” Mr Balafoutis told the inquest.

“Fiona then turned me to my right and I opened my eyes slightly to see where I was going. And Monis said to me, ‘You with the white shirt, you opened your eyes, I told you not to open your eyes ... you have lost points ... you can gain points or lose points ... and you have lost points.

“The second occasion was while I was standing up at the window, I was standing there looking outside with my eyes closed, I briefly opened my eyes and Monis said, ‘Hey you with the white shirt, I saw you open your eyes, you’re not supposed to do that.’

“(His tone) was firm and annoyed.

“(There were) another few occasions where he said, ‘Hey you with the white shirt, put your hands on your head,’ and so on.”

Mr Balafoutis said Monis “went out of his way with the other hostages to ask them their names”.

“He didn’t do that with me,” he said.

Earlier in the week, the inquest heard that a police surveillance device had picked up Monis later saying during the siege, “I feel bad I didn’t shoot white shirt when I had the chance.”

“I thought he objectified me in a sense, when he called me ‘white shirt’,” Mr Balafoutis told the inquest.

“(Monis) was in constant discussions about releasing hostages. (Because of his) attitude towards me ... one view I formed was I was unlikely to be one of those hostages. I felt in the event Monis was to shoot somebody because he was panicked with the police, there was a high change it would be me.”

4. POLICE IGNORED WARNINGS FROM HOSTAGE

Lindt Cafe worker Paolo Vassallo leaving the inquest.

Lindt cafe back of house manager Paolo Vassallo hasn’t worked since the siege. The father of three hasn’t been able to. On Thursday, a clearly shaken Mr Vassallo sat at the stand, often with his head in his hands and eyes to the floor. He spoke of repeatedly warning police the gunman would “kill” hostages if they didn’t immediately storm the cafe. He said he told police at the time he didn’t believe Monis’ threats that he had a bomb in his backpack but no action was taken.

Mr Vassallo said he had fled through a fire escape door in the kitchen moments after two other hostages, John O’Brien and Stefan Balafoutis, ran for their lives via the front entrance around 3.40pm.

He was then met by police around the corner who took him to a nearby leagues club to be treated and interviewed.

“I saw a guy in the SWAT, (wearing) all black,” Mr Vassallo said as he choked up.

“I said, ‘You have to go in.’

“I said, ‘You can’t wait for this guy … you waiting, he’s going to shoot someone.’

“There’s one thing I believed he would do and that’s shoot someone.

“I said (to police), ‘You can’t wait or people are going to die in there.’”

Mr Vassallo suggested police had missed at least one opportunity to storm the cafe and disarm or kill Monis.

“I made it clear (to police following my escape) it had to end on police terms,” Mr Vassallo said.

“Negotiating was non-existent, demands weren’t being met and that was frustrating (Monis), it was only going to go one way, it was only going to escalate.

“It was never going to be a happy ending. A peaceful resolution was never on the cards. It was only going to end badly, and that’s why I wanted the police to end it on their terms; to give the people a chance, half a chance.

“I knew he was there to shoot someone. He was going to do the shooting and I believed that so I pushed for (police) to go in as quick as they (could), not to wait. They would have had a chance, the people there, you know.

“To end like that, it kills me.”

5. TORI JOHNSON ‘FELT RESPONSIBLE’ FOR HOSTAGES

Tori Johnson.

The inquest heard that Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson didn’t want anyone to escape the siege because he thought it would put the remaining hostages’ lives at risk.

Fiona Ma, who had only been working at the cafe for one week at the time of the incident, said she had a discussion about escaping with Mr Johnson in the bathroom during the siege earlier in the day.

She said his view was that escaping would put other people’s lives at risk.

She indicated Mr Johnson had felt “responsible for the safety of staff and hostages” in the cafe.

“He told you he didn’t want to endanger anybody’s lives?” Gabrielle Bashir, counsel for the family of siege victim Tori Johnson, asked Ms Ma.

“Yes,” Ms Ma said.

The inquest heard that Mr Johnson had “positioned himself” between the two most vulnerable hostages who suffered medical conditions, Louisa Hope and her mother Robyn.

The gunman had taken Louisa’s walking stick, making the two women the “least likely to be able to escape swiftly”.

“I think he knew that,” Ms Ma said.

Ms Ma said Mr Johnson was protective of the hostages.