Bombshell evidence about Bondi Westfield killer revealed at hearing

Bombshell evidence about Westfield Bondi Junction killer Joel Cauchi has been revealed at the first hearing into his stabbing rampage, including that his psychiatrist wound down his medication before his mental health deteriorated, forcing his fearful parents to confiscate his hunting knives.

Cauchi, 40, killed six people in the April 13 attack: Ashlee Good, Jade Young, Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Faraz Tahir and Pikria Darchia.

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

An inquest into the attack began with a brief administrative hearing on Tuesday morning, which was told Queensland Police and Cauchi’s parents had become increasingly concerned about his mental health – and knife collection – a year before the events at Bondi Junction.

Cauchi was confronted and shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott in the shopping mall.

Counsel Assisting, Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, told the Coroners Court that Cauchi’s mental health had deteriorated in the five years before his death.

His Queensland psychiatrist had reduced Cauchi’s medication during that time – and his decline had left police and his parents alarmed.

The six people killed in the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing attack: (clockwise from top left) Ashlee Good, Jade Young, Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Faraz Tahir and Pikria Darchia.

Cauchi had been living with schizophrenia since 2001 and was managed by the public mental health system in his native Queensland until 2012.

Between 2012 and 2020, he saw a private psychiatrist in Toowoomba and was medicated using two psychotropic drugs.

But the medication had been reduced over the years, Dwyer said, until it was stopped completely in June 2019.

Cauchi moved to Brisbane in June 2020, and over the following years, there was a “deterioration in his mental health”, Dwyer said.

Queensland Police never charged Cauchi with any crimes, but he was known for erratic driving and had raised more red flags in the year before his attack.

In January 2023, Cauchi called police to his parents’ Toowoomba home, telling officers his father had stolen his knife collection.

They were KA-BAR knives, a military-style combat blade, which Cauchi collected.

Cauchi’s parents told officers their son had long-term schizophrenia, was no longer medicated, and they were worried about his deterioration.

They told officers his knives had been taken as a precaution.

The following month, Cauchi phoned the police to again report his father for stealing his knives.

One of the officers, who had been called out both times, emailed the Queensland Police mental health team. There is no sign they followed up, the inquest heard.

The police felt they did not have the grounds to involuntarily section him under mental health legislation.

Police officer Amy Scott shot Cauchi and saved the lives of shoppers, the hearing was told.

There was just one more interaction with Queensland authorities in December 2023, when Cauchi was searched with a metal-detecting wand near a tourist beach. There was nothing found.

By early 2024, the inquest heard, Cauchi had migrated to NSW, was homeless and living under the Maroubra beach pavilion.

A resident had called NSW Police after spotting him in a sleeping bag, and an officer spoke to Cauchi.

Three months later, CCTV in a Kennards storage facility captured Cauchi taking a KA-BAR knife from a locker and putting it in his backpack.

He then entered Westfield Bondi Junction and began his attack.

Tahir’s brothers, outside the hearing, paid tribute to their “brave” sibling who was working at the centre as a security guard.

“Faraz, he was a brave man, and he was bare-handed,” Sheraz Ahmed said.

“He was on duty at that time, and he was just trying to stop the attacker, and gave his life.”

The brothers, speaking through a translator, said they wanted to be part of the coronial process to improve Australia.

“Nothing can be done about what has already happened – this is not a place to be blaming anyone,” the brothers’ translator told media.

“We are all in it together.”

The brothers said it was difficult hearing about the moments Tahir was stabbed by Cauchi, but they had come to hear about what changes could be made.

Brothers of Faraz Tahir, the security guard who was murdered by Joel Cauchi, speak outside the NSW Coroners Court on Tuesday.Credit: Jessica Hromas

“[We] just want to know what happened on that day, and what could be the best for the future,” Ahmed said.

“I hope there will be some changes for the security guards, to their equipment, that can secure their lives because they are also securing others’ lives.”

Police Inspector Amy Scott, who had entered the shopping centre alone, heroically confronted the mass murderer and shot him dead minutes after his rampage began.

The NSW State Coroner, Magistrate Teresa O’Sullivan, on Tuesday opened the hearing by paying tribute to the dead and the “unspeakable grief” that shocked the community.

Dwyer said medical and psychiatric experts and doctors would be called when the inquest began formally in April 2025, one year after the murders.

Scott is expected to be completely cleared of any suggestion of wrongdoing.

Dwyer told the court her “decisive” action against Cauchi saved the lives of other shoppers.

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