‘The stuff of nightmares’: Families of Westfield Bondi Junction victims share grief and anger

The parents and siblings of those killed in the Westfield Bondi Junction attack have expressed grief, gratitude and fury in emotional scenes at the end of a five-week inquest into the attack that claimed six lives and that of the killer.

Their harrowing evidence provided one of the most powerful moments in the inquest, as the brother of one victim extended an olive branch to the parents of the killer, Joel Cauchi.

Flowers at the memorial site at Westfield Bondi in the aftermath of the attack.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

Cauchi, 40, was shot dead by a NSW Police officer after he stabbed 16 people in the shopping centre on the afternoon of April 13, 2024.

Six people died of their injuries; Dawn Singleton, 25, Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Cheng Yixuan, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, and Faraz Tahir, 30. A further 10 people were injured but survived.

Jade’s mother, Elizabeth Young, said her daughter was murdered “by an unmedicated, chronic schizophrenic, who had in his possession knives designed for killing”.

“On a lovely autumn afternoon, to learn your daughter is dead, stabbed in broad daylight, killed amidst fellow unsuspecting shoppers, was living, breathing just an hour ago – it’s the stuff of nightmares, of a parallel universe,” Young told the Lidcombe Coroners Court on Thursday.

Elizabeth Young holding a photo of her daughter Jade, who was killed in the Bondi Junction attack.

Jade’s brother, father, husband and dog, Teddy, crowded into the witness box to support each other.

The inquest has heard over the past month that Cauchi had been taken off his antipsychotic medicine and deteriorated over the five years leading up to the attack.

He had been “lost to follow up” by his treating doctors in Queensland, and police missed opportunities to intervene as he spiralled into a psychotic fixation on military knives and serial killers.

The inquest has heard individuals within multiple fallible systems were doing their best. However, Elizabeth Young was not comforted.

“I’m sorry, but it seems my daughter and five others were killed by the cumulative failures of numbers of people within a whole series of fallible systems,” she said.

Young added her voice to those condemning media coverage, saying her family was stalked by television crews in the days that followed her daughter’s murder. She said she learnt a new word in the process: “Trauma-porn”.

Faraz Tahir, 30, died a hero confronting Joel Cauchi on his first shift as a security guard at Westfield Bondi Junction.

Elizabeth ended with a quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, that she was looking into a bleak “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” without her daughter.

Faraz Tahir was killed on his first shift as a security guard at the centre. He and another guard, Muhammad Taha, had bravely rushed to the sound of screaming and were ambushed by Cauchi.

Taha survived.

Tahir’s family said Faraz came to Australia to escape persecution, and died protecting the lives of innocents in his new home. “Faraz had dreams, for his life, for his family, for a better tomorrow,” his brother, Muzafar, said. “I’m very sad about Faraz’s sudden death, but his greatest achievement has raised our pride when the prime minister called him a national hero.”

The Tahir family even offered condolences to Michele and Andrew Cauchi, the parents of the man who had killed Faraz.

“They raised their son and have lost him – and we know this tragedy is not their fault,” Muzafar said.

Muzafar Ahmad Tahir, brother of murdered security guard Faraz Tahir, outside the NSW Coroners Court.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Muzafar and a third brother, Sheraz, told this masthead they hoped the inquest would lead to more funding for the groaning mental health system through which Cauchi slipped.

Their hopes were amplified by the Young family.

“[This] is a cry out to an Australia that doesn’t want to acknowledge that what happened ... is essentially the catastrophic consequence of years of neglect of and within our mental health systems, state and federal,” Elizabeth said.

The families each thanked the first responders including emergency workers and other shoppers who raced to save their loved ones.

The Tahir family thanked paramedics – notable as the inquest had heard Faraz had sustained potentially, but unlikely survivable, injuries.

More statements followed, from the family of Ash Good, but they were suppressed at the request of the family.

Chinese student Yixuan Cheng.

Then the parents of student Cheng Yixuan were too upset to dial in from China as their lawyer read their statement.

Their statement recounted their devastation, and the horrible four-day journey to Australia after “the treasure of our life” was stolen.

“If heaven could grant us one wish, even if fulfilling it meant giving up every ounce of good fortune in my life, or being shattered body and soul, we would not hesitate,” the statement read.

“We would wish for the tragedy of 13 April 2024 to be nothing but a dream. One we could wake from, and find Yixuan and all those lost and injured that day, now safe and well in this world, everything as it was.”

Her fiance is still building and decorating their marriage home, stocking it with her clothes and items so he can spend his life with her “in spirit”.

Pikria Darchia’s children, and best friend Tamara, also offered their statements.

“She was not just a victim, she was an artist” inspired by the Australian and Sydney landscape, her son said.

Pikria Darchia was “made of something different, something rare and beautiful”, her daughter said.

“She loved this city, she believed in it,” he said.

“Pikria deserved a full and beautiful life, and it was taken from her,” Tamara said thanking both Inspector Amy Scott, who shot Cauchi, and the liaison officer tasked to the Dachia family.

Dachia’s daughter said her mother’s “happiness was in our happiness, her peace was in our safety.”

“She was made of something different, something rare and beautiful,” her daughter said.

“But the way she left this world, breaks me. It was so sudden, so violent, so opposite of the peace she deserved.”

NSW Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan said Thursday’s hearing was a profound one she will never forget, as she adjourned the inquest until submissions in October.

“I want the families to know their loved ones will not be lost in this process as we go ahead to put all of this together.”

O’Sullivan is expected to hand down recommendations before Christmas.

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