Bondi Junction Inquest as it happened: Hero cop among witnesses to give evidence in first week

We are now wrapping up our live coverage of the first day of the Bondi Junction Inquest. You can read our separate report on the first day of the hearing here. The inquest is slated to run for five weeks in Sydney.

The Coroners Court has adopted a trauma-informed approach to hearings, including limiting interactions between family members and the media and avoiding replaying graphic and distressing footage of the attack at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13 last year.

The memorial site last year.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

“We’re all human, and we all have hearts, and our hearts go out to you today,” State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan told the families.

A major focus of Dwyer’s opening address was Joel Cauchi’s mental health. The inquest heard he suffered from treatment-resistant schizophrenia and had been unmedicated for about the last five years of his life.

• Dwyer said Cauchi had displayed an interest in guns in 2021 and a psychiatrist provided a report to the “Queensland Police Service weapons licensing branch … in which he confirmed that Mr Cauchi was at that stage, in his view, a fit and proper person to be issued with a weapons licence. The available evidence suggests that Mr Cauchi did not follow through with a gun licence and that is very, very fortunate.”
• Counsel assisting said that “searches on his phone indicate that from at least around 2022 Mr Cauchi was preoccupied with weapons, with violence, and with mass killing”.
• The browsing history on his phone from about late 2022 “suggested a preoccupation with death and murder”, Dwyer said. “There are bookmarked pages [and searches] on serial killers, searches containing mass stabbing incidents in Australia … that’s all in the days leading up to the attack. Mr Cauchi also searched for information on the Columbine shooters on the 13th of April.”
• Cauchi made a note on his phone on January 25 that said: “Call knife sharpener and confirm it doesn’t need sharpening for mall use.”
• On February 12, he made a note to “check out malls and also where to run”.
• Other notes dated January 31, February 3 and February 14 “all suggest that he was planning a strike or attack”. This was “very different to how Mr Cauchi presented or behaved or appeared to think when he was medicated,” Dywer said.

• The court was not seeking to stigmatise those living with complex and chronic mental illness, Dwyer said, and most people living with schizophrenia will never commit any form of violent attack. Cauchi’s parents loved and cared for him all his life, and they were shocked he had committed these terrible acts of violence, she said.

The security response was also examined during the opening address. The inquest heard that a security officer in a Westfield Bondi Junction CCTV control room had left for a bathroom break at about 3.32pm on April 13, and that Cauchi’s attack started “exactly 40 seconds after [the security officer] … left”. By the time the security officer returned after an absence of just one minute and 40 seconds, Cauchi “had attacked eight individuals, three of whom would die from their wounds”.

Ashlee Good, 38, Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Faraz Tahir, 30, and Pikria Darchia, 55, were killed during Cauchi’s three-minute knife attack. A further 10 people were injured. He was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.

If you or anyone you know needs help, call SANE on 1800 187 263 (and see sane.org), Lifeline on 13 11 14 (and see lifeline.org.au) or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 (and see beyondblue.org.au).

The inquest will examine a “co-responder model” in which police would be accompanied by trained mental health professionals, said counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC.

She expressed her deep condolences to the families of the victims.

Peggy Dwyer, SC, left, outside the Coroners Court in Lidcombe on Monday.Credit: Kate Geraghty

“We feel for you deeply, but we don’t pretend to know the extent and depth of your loss.”

The inquest is now taking a break over lunch. The hearing resumes at 2.20pm.

Addressing the families directly, State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan added that the inquest was a formal process but “we’re all human, and we all have hearts, and our hearts go out to you today”.

“It’s formal, but there is that human aspect of this, that we’re all feeling for you”.

A July 2022 CrimeStoppers report recorded that Joel Cauchi attempted to attend a high school sports centre in Toowoomba to watch a swimming carnival, the inquest heard.

“That’s almost two years prior to Bondi Junction. The school took swift action, and he was not permitted to attend,” counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, said.

On January 8, 2023, Queensland police attended the home of Cauchi’s parents, where he was living at the time.

Cauchi had accused his father of taking his knives. The interaction is captured on police body-worn video.

“Both of Mr Cauchi’s parents state that in their opinion he’s mentally unwell.”

Counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, notes that Joel Cauchi was “lost to follow-up” because there was no one health practitioner responsible for managing his ongoing care.

The lack of access to a detailed clinical history was an issue for practitioners seeing Cauchi after 2019.

Dwyer said the desirability of a single point for accessing medical records in these circumstances would be examined.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, said Joel Cauchi sought access to guns in 2021 but ultimately, and fortunately, did not follow through with a gun licence.

“On the 20th of January, 2021 … [a] Brisbane-based psychiatrist provided a report in support of Mr Cauchi’s application for a gun licence, which was then submitted by Mr Cauchi on around the 25th of January, 2021.

Joel Cauchi had serious mental health issues for more than 20 years, the court heard.Credit: Facebook

“In response to a letter dated the 8th of February, 2021, from the Queensland Police Service weapons licensing branch, that psychiatrist, Dr C, provided a further report … in which he confirmed that Mr Cauchi was at that stage, in his view, a fit and proper person to be issued with a weapons licence.”

Cauchi was ultimately issued with a statement of eligibility, Dwyer said. This supports a person’s admission to an approved pistol club. It doesn’t allow a person to purchase a weapon and is not a gun licence.

“With respect to the application for a gun licence, Mr Cauchi apparently told Dr C that he didn’t plan to purchase a gun, but only intended to practice target shooting at a gun range which would be supervised,” Dwyer said.

“The interest shown by Mr Cauchi in obtaining access to firearms, even at a pistol range, whilst untreated for schizophrenia, raises questions regarding the scrutiny of any applicant for any form of firearms permit, where the applicant has a history of involuntary psychiatric hospital care, particularly for the form of treatment-resistant schizophrenia that Mr Cauchi was suffering.

“The available evidence suggests that Mr Cauchi did not follow through with a gun licence and that is very, very fortunate, because the evidence on Mr Cauchi’s iPhone and his internet searching suggests a very significant deterioration of his mental health steadily from the time that he was unmedicated, and a significant deterioration around this time.”

After being treated in the public mental health system in Queensland, Joel Cauchi moved into the care of a private psychiatrist in Toowoomba in 2012.

One medication was gradually reduced until it was ceased in June 2018, after he expressed concerns about over-sedation. In June 2019, he ceased treatment with any medication.

He exited the mental health system shortly thereafter, and was effectively “lost to follow-up” from early 2020.

The inquest has heard Joel Cauchi was “effectively unmedicated” for nearly five years.

The court was not seeking to stigmatise those living with complex and chronic mental illness, counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, said, and most people living with schizophrenia will never commit any form of violent attack.

Cauchi’s parents loved and cared for him all his life, and they were absolutely shocked he had committed these terrible acts of violence, she said.

His behaviour and personality began to change when he was about 14, the inquest heard, and he became aggressive. His family sought treatment in the mental health system.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia while he was a teenager. From 2001 to 2012, he received care in the Queensland mental health system.

While the inquest will examine whether lessons can be learned about the triaging of those injured in mass casualty attacks, counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, said this was “extremely unlikely to have made a difference on the day”.

There was a question about whether security guard Faraz Tahir could have been assisted, but an expert witness had opined that his injuries were “probably unsurvivable”.

Dwyer said the purpose of the inquest was “not to blame individuals or organisations who were obviously doing the best they could”.

The inquest has heard the “deafening alarm” at Westfield Bondi Junction impeded communication between paramedics.

It also appeared that some patients were re-triaged by crews after they had died.

“That was not the best use of valuable resources,” counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, said.

Seventeen NSW Ambulance crews were deployed to Westfield Bondi Junction, the inquest heard, the first of which arrived at 3.42pm. Joel Cauchi had been shot dead by this time.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Peggy Dwyer, SC, said there was no disputing that the ambulance response was prompt and that first responders acted with courage in an uncertain, unfolding and volatile situation.