Joel Cauchi’s family share how Bondi attacker’s mental health was source of so much pain

As the Bondi attacker callously killed six people and attacked others, his father called police to alert them to the identity of the man they were trying to stop.

As the country watched on in horror as an armed man killed six people and injured multiple others during the horror Bondi attack, a father called police to alert them to the identity of the man they were trying to stop.

Queensland man Joel Cauchi was the man responsible for the terrifying attack at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre on April 13.

The stabbing spree started at 3.20pm when the 40-year-old, armed with a knife, attacked multiple people going about their Saturday afternoon shopping.

Cauchi killed six people – five women and a male security guard.

Police were called to Westfield Bondi Junction after multiple people were stabbed. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Joel Cauchi went on a violent rampage through the shopping centre. Picture: 9 News

As he carried out his attack on innocent bystanders – including a baby who remains in hospital – moving from one level to the other of the shopping centre, police stormed the building in an effort to stop him.

Wearing a Kangaroos rugby league jersey, Cauchi was shot dead by police officer Amy Scott, who had single-handedly stopped the Bondi attacker and saved many more possible victims from harm.

While the armed officers were combing the centre looking for Cauchi, his father Andrew made a heartbreaking phone call to police from more than 800km away in Rockville, Queensland.

Mr Cauchi said his wife, Michele, first called Queensland Police after recognising their son on the television as the Bondi attacker.

He told them his son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 17 years old.

After trying to get through to NSW Police for half an hour, Mr Cauchi said he knew it was his son the moment he saw him on TV.

“I said, ‘I know my son, I know how he runs. I know my boy’,” Mr Cauchi said.

“I rang the police and said ‘this my son, his name is Joel Cauchi, he’s got schizophrenia’.”

Andrew Cauchi, the father of Joel Cauchi, says he’s still unsure why his son went on the violent rampage. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

The shock discovery came as another man was initially wrongly identified as the Bondi attacker.

Benjamin Cohen was incorrectly identified as the knife attacker by Seven on Sunday – more than two hours before the NSW Police publicly named Cauchi.

Mr Cohen, a university student, was wrongly named about 6am on Sunday by Weekend Sunrise as the knife-wielding murderer who attacked and killed six people in the eastern suburbs.

Seven issued an on-air apology to Mr Cohen on Sunday.

Mr Cohen has since engaged two of Australia’s foremost defamation lawyers in Patrick George of Giles George as his solicitor and Sue Chrysanthou SC as barrister.

When NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke named Cauchi about 8.30am on Sunday, officers were starting to put together a picture of who the Bondi attacker was.

As their investigations continued, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb confirmed it was obvious to her and detectives that Cauchi had focused on women and avoided men during the attack.

“The videos speak for themselves, don’t they? That’s certainly a line of inquiry for us. It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives that it seems to be an area of interest that the offender had focused on women and avoided the men,” Ms Webb said.

While Mr Cauchi remains clueless as to what caused his son to go on the violent rampage, he said Cauchi had always wanted a girlfriend but was “highly intelligent”.

Cauchi was originally from Queensland.

“He wanted a girlfriend and he’s got no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain,” Mr Cauchi said.

He said from the moment he realised the Bondi attacker was his son, he watched every video to try to get an insight into his son’s thinking.

He recalled a CCTV video made public that showed Cauchi stumbling out of an Asian restaurant hours before he turned his knife on his innocent victims.

“If you look at the footage coming out of this Asian place, he’s all over the place and then he fell into the shop,” Mr Cauchi said.

“Then you see him running as if nothing was happening a few hours later.

“There’s something physically wrong, besides mentally wrong, with my son before he died.

“I don’t understand. I’ve been watching everything I can on this TV and putting myself through hell watching my son, but I’m prepared to do that because I love my son and I want to find out what’s wrong.

“I don’t know what’s wrong (or) why he would do this.

“I don’t know why he’s done this but obviously something’s tripped him up. What trips up someone with mental illness? It doesn’t have to be much.”

Police at the scene on Sunday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Police sent into heavily armed officers to try to reach Cauchi. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Mr Cauchi said he and his wife had tried for many years to help their son manage his schizophrenia, even after he was taken off his medication.

“I’m just devastated, I love my son. I made myself a servant to my son when I found out he had a mental illness. I became his servant because I loved that boy,” Mr Cauchi said.

“I did everything in my power to help my son.

“I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do or say to bring back the dead.

“He’s my son and I’m loving a monster; to you he’s a monster but to me he was very sick boy.”

As police continue investigations, Westfield opened its doors once more at Bondi Junction on Thursday for a vigil service to remember those who died.

The victims include mother Ashlee Good, 38, Dawn Singleton, 25, the daughter of millionaire businessman John Singleton, mother-of-two Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Chinese national Yixuan Cheng, 27, and security guard Faraz Tahir, 30.