Sydney siege inquest: Hostage Fiona Ma breaks down while on the stand
FOOTAGE of the Sydney siege gunman holding his shotgun to the backs of the hostages he used as a human shield in the Lindt Cafe, has been released.
CHILLING unseen footage of the Sydney siege gunman holding his shotgun to the backs of the hostages he used as a human shield in the Lindt Cafe, has been released.
The inquest into the deaths arising from the Sydney siege continued today as former hostages Fiona Ma, Stefan Balafoutis and John O’Brien took to the stand and relived the worst day of their lives.
The inquest heard of the terror each of the hostages who today testified had endured as previously unseen footage and photographs of the siege and pieces of evidence were shown publicly for the first time.
Ms Ma told the inquest how gunman Man Haron Monis used her and two other hostages as a human shield. Her testimony was illustrated by newly released footage, shot by Channel Seven cameras from the network’s studio opposite the cafe, of Monis wielding a gun as he ordered the hostages to make a ‘human shield’ around him.
The inquest heard shocking new details of how Monis told three hostages — one of whom was later killed — they could leave the cafe but then stopped them as they were just steps away from freedom.
Mr Balafoutis told how he later fled because he was on the gunman’s bad side and feared the consequences of Monis’ threat of an “Islamic State style” attack.
“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,” Mr Balafoutis said.
Mr O’Brien recounted the “worst five seconds of (his) life” which involved a run for the door and pressing the “green button” to escape while anticipating a bullet in his back.
The inquest is looking into the deaths arising from the Sydney siege at the Lindt cafe on December 15, 2014. Cafe manager Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson were killed in the siege, along with the gunman.
As the inquest continues, the toll the ordeal has taken on the surviving hostages has become evident.
INQUEST HALTED AS FIONA MA BREAKS DOWN
Less than an hour into former Lindt cafe worker Fiona Ma’s testimony on Thursday, a break was called as she broke down at the stand.
Ms Ma burst into tears after she spoke about how Monis used her and other hostages, including Jarrod Morton-Hoffman and Selina Win Pe, as a human shield.
She said Monis made the three of them circle him as he moved towards a window and pointed to police officers that he had become increasingly paranoid about.
“He was getting increasingly agitated throughout the night because his demands weren’t being met,” Ms Ma said.
“I don’t know what exactly triggered it, but I went on a toilet trip with Jarrod (Morton-Hoffman) and Robyn (Hope), we were in there for a while and we heard a knock on door and it was Man Monis calling for me.
“I opened the door and he said ‘why is it taking so long?’. He called us out. I could see Selina (Win Pe) standing with him, he was holding onto her, I think he had the gun to her back. (Selina) wasn’t doing well. She was just crying and telling him not to shoot.
“We got Robyn out of the bathroom quickly and we sat her back down. He was still holding Selina (on his left) and then he told me to stand on the right side of him, and he told Jarrod to follow behind him to cover his back. He walked into (the) kitchen to see if anyone was there. Then he shoved us back into the cafe area.”
Monis then moved through the cafe to check for police with his “human shield” still surrounding him.
“He just left Jarrod there and he moved me and Selina towards one of the Philip Street windows,” Ms Ma said.
“Then he stopped us and pointed outside the window and I could see the reflection of the police to the right of the cafe.”
She said she heard the officers say “f**k, this guy’s crazy” in reference to the gunman but she didn’t believe Monis heard the comment.
“You could see the reflection of (police) moving around on the window (across the road) and (Monis) was saying ‘do you see that? Do you see that?’ I just pretended I couldn’t see it. I said ‘I don’t know what you’re pointing at, or what you’re looking at’,” Ms Ma said.
“Selina said that she could see it. Then he moved us into the kitchen. (Selina was) still crying. (Monis was still holding onto her). He wasn’t holding onto me, but I was pressed on him. Then he told me to start stacking boxes near the fire escape door.”
Moments later, while Monis’ attention was diverted, hostages Stefan Balafoutis and John O’Brien escaped.
THE HOSTAGE MONIS WANTED DEAD
Sydney barrister and former hostage Stefan Balafoutis, the third witness to take the stand, told the Sydney Siege 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.”
GUNMAN ALMOST LET DAWSON GO
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.
Mr 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’.”
Counsel assisting Jeremy Gormly then said: “You earlier understood Monis had authorised the departure of the three of you. When did it change to you not being able to leave?”
“There was no particular time. As we stood close to the doors and I heard Tori say ‘just push the green buttons to open the doors’. I was just waiting for something to happen. Someone to say ‘open the doors and push the handle’ but it simply never happened,” Mr Balafoutis said.
“Then I heard Monis speaking. I was facing the glass doors and had Monis far behind me. I heard him speaking and making various demands and asking hostages to call the media.
“At some point (we were) given a chair to sit on, and a chair for Katrina and Julie as well.”
Moments later Mr Balafoutis was directed to stand at a window and put his hands above his head.
THE ‘WORST FIVE SECONDS OF MY LIFE’
Former international tennis player and Sydney retiree John O’Brien told the inquest how he anticipated a bullet in the back during his desperate escape.
Mr O’Brien, 83, who fled with Mr Balafoutis, told the inquest how he crawled and squeezed through a partition to get out of the cafe.
“I was on my left side and I said to Stefan at 3.30pm ‘this is it, I’m going to get out’,” Mr O’Brien said.
“I believe he said ‘I’ll follow you’.”
Mr O’Brien made it to the foyer but had to press a “green button” to exit and wait for the doors to open.
“I thought the doors had been electronically locked from where the cash register was and it was one of the worst five seconds of my life ... because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he said.
“I pushed the green button and the doors opened and away we went.
“I thought if he (catches) us getting out he’ll shoot us both in the back.”
Mr O’Brien said he ran for his life towards a SWAT team waiting around the corner.
He told the inquest he had formed the view Monis “wasn’t going to come out alive” and was likely to kill all of the hostages.
“I knew it was a serious situation,” he said.
“He did say midmorning he was going to kill us all one by one because Tony Abbott wouldn’t get on the phone to him.
“He obviously believed in the Islamic State and Tony Abbott pulling the troops out of Afghanistan and didn’t agree with our Australian way of life.
“He was quite mad. Very dangerous.
“It was obvious he wasn’t going to relent and give in because of the way things eventuated throughout the day.
“People were very upset and crying. Marcia Mikhael was sobbing and pleading with him to please let her go home to her three children. But it was water on a duck’s back to him. He didn’t show any signs of softening.”
TORI JOHNSON ‘FELT RESPONSIBLE’ FOR HOSTAGES
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.
Ms Ma 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.
Ms Ma told of Monis firing his first shot and hearing him “reload” for another round. She took the chance to flee and sprinted from the cafe to freedom at 2.11am.
She believed she would otherwise “not get out of there alive”.
Ms Ma said she thought the others had escaped too and it was only later she realised hostages still remained inside.
About two minutes after Ms Ma’s escape, Monis executed Lindt cafe manager, Tori Johnson.
Counsel assisting Jeremy Gormly, SC said:
“There’s some chance that you and Selina could have been the only ones left”.
“Yes,” Ms Ma replied.
“And you didn’t want that to be the case.”
“No,” she replied, covering her face with her hands as she broke down in tears and sobbed.
Counsel assisting Jeremy Gormly offered Ms Ma a break. She accepted the offer and returned to the stand about half an hour later.
The inquest continues.
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