Bondi killer Joel Cauchi’s ‘delusional’ sex work plan

A brothel manager has revealed the “amateur” approach she received from the Westfield murderer and has speculated on what may have caused his breakdown.

A brothel owner has revealed Joel Cauchi's "delusional" sex work plan.

A former brothel manager in Sydney’s Bondi Junction has spoken of the “delusional” application for sex work she received from Westfield murderer Joel Cauchi.

Cee Rodriguez said Cauchi’s approach was so “sloppy,” and his clients would have to be so “desperate” to book him, that there was only one reason why she didn’t delete the message and block the prospective sex worker there and then.

Ms Rodriguez also speculated that his unedifying attempt to become an escort may have affected his mental health.

The Queenslander stabbed 18 people at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre last Saturday including 15 women and a nine-month-old baby girl.

Ashlee Good, 38; Dawn Singleton, 25; Faraz Tahir, 30; Jade Young, 47; Pikria Darchia, 55 and Yixuan Cheng, 27, all died in the attack.

The killer was shot dead by hero New South Wales Police Inspector Amy Scott.

After the massacre, it emerged Cauchi had advertised himself as a male escort with an online advert describing him as “athletic good looking 39-year-old guy”.

He had offered his services to groups, romantic encounters, and bespoke requests, garnering 853 views on his profile before its removal.

‘Delusional’

Ms Rodriguez used to run the now closed Flamingo Club brothel located a stone’s throw from the Bondi Junction shopping centre in the city’s east.

She said she received an informal application from Cauchi. Included with it was an image of himself in a Manchester United football guernsey and shorts and was straddling a backward facing chair crudely reminiscent of the iconic 1961 image of UK model Christine Keeler.

Ms Rodriguez was not impressed by the slapdash snap of Cauchi’s proposal.

“I said to my friend, ‘obviously this kid is an amateur,’ because this is a business and if you want us to take you seriously, you need to present yourself as such,” she told the Daily Mail.

“I said ‘look at this guy, he’s delusional,’ and my friend was like, ‘who the f*** would pay for that?’”

Ms Rodriguez said he looked like a British football hooligan, which was unlikely to have wide appeal.

The image that Joel Cauchi sent to the brothel to advertise his services.

The brothel manager said Cauchi was ‘delusional’ in is approach.

One reason she took second look

The manager said she would have ignored Cauchi’s approach altogether but he had said he would be “open to servicing both men and women”.

“If he hadn’t said men I would have just sent a laughing emoji and blocked him,” she said.

“But since he said men and because I know the demographic and some of the clientele, I entertained the idea of a booking-only arrangement.”

That would mean he would hire a room in the brothel that he could use for clients booked through the business.

His application was “sloppy”, however, and “unprofessional”, and unlike any she had received previously, she said.

This was only confirmed when he asked if the brothel received “female clientele”, indicating his preference would be to work with women.

“Anyone who wants to work in the industry and thinks that they’re going to make money servicing women, I tell them, ‘listen, unless you’re going to go gay for pay, you’re going to be pretty broke’,” she said.

Ms Rodriguez added the only people who would book Cauchi would either be “drugged off their nut” or “desperate”.

Screenshot from an escort profile by Joel Cauchi.

‘WTF’

Her overriding impression, Ms Rodriguez told the Daily Mail, was that the killer had never done any sex work and was flailing. His messages were “not coherent”, she said.

“If you are successful in this game, you don’t need to be cold messaging a brothel,” she said.

She said Cauchi lost interest after she said he would have to attend an interview, bring in ID and fill in an application form, which included a line on how police could be called if there was any drug use or threats or actual physical violence.

So perplexed was she by the man’s enquiries that she saved his number on her phone under the name “WTF”.

The Queenslander killed eight people at Westfield.

The murderer did end up posting a profile to websites Escorts.Au Australia and EmpirEscort.

Among his advertised services, Cauchi offered: “Let me gently massage all of your body, and have me in any and every way!”

It’s not known if anyone booked him.

Members of the public pay their respects at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre during a day of reflection on April 18, 2024. Picture: Dion Georgopoulos – Pool/Getty Images

Ms Rodriguez said she wondered if Cauchi’s apparent failure to break into sex work may have been a factor in his mental health issues.

“This is pure speculation but if you were trying to offer services to women initially and you realised you weren’t going to make any money, you might expand to both men and women,” she said.

“If you were contracted by a couple, say a husband and a wife, the feedback that you might receive could be debilitating.

“It can smash your fragile mental health.”

On Thursday, scores of people lined up outside the Westfield centre for a “community reflection day” prior to its reopening on Friday.

It was a sombre scene as people walked through the centre for the first time since the massacre.

Talking to news.com.au, one man said he felt compelled to come today because “everyone in Sydney has been to Bondi Junction at some point”.

He noted it felt “weird” to be here but he thought it was important the victims didn’t go “unseen”.

Elliott Rusanow, the chief executive of Scentre Group which runs Westfield malls in Australia, said the tragedy had been “devastating” for staff.

“This has been a very difficult time and I want to acknowledge the hard work and tireless efforts of our Westfield Bondi and Scentre Group teams,” Mr Rusanow said.