Horrific new details emerge about crazed killer Joel Cauchi’s evil obsession before he launched Westfield Bondi Junction massacre
Schizophrenic knifeman Joel Cauchi was preoccupied with violence, weapons and mass killings for years before the Westfield Bondi Junction massacre.
Cauchi’s internet browsing in the lead up to his rampage showed he was obsessed with serial killers and may have made some ‘rudimentary plans’ for his own attack.
Before killing six people at the shopping centre he had conducted internet searches of the Columbine High School massacre in which 13 students were murdered.
The opening day of an inquest into the Westfield Bondi Junction heard Cauchi had been ‘floridly psychotic’ when he committed the outrage.
The inquest is investigating the deaths of five women and one man killed by 40-year-old Cauchi on April 13 last year.
It will also examine the wounding of ten others and the death of Cauchi, who was shot by Inspector Amy Scott at the scene.
The inquiry began at the State Coroners Court at Lidcombe in Sydney’s west on Monday and is set to run for five weeks.
State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan is presiding over the inquest, which Cauchi committed with a US Marines-style Ka-Bar utility knife he bought on February 24 last year.
Joel Cauchi attacked 16 people in a matter of minutes, killing six, before being shot dead by Inspector Amy Scott. He is pictured in CCTV footage during the rampage
Cauchi used a Ka-Bar knife (above, stock picture) to stab his victims. The inquest will examine whether there should be restrictions on such weapons
Those killed were shoppers Dawn Singleton, 35, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Ashlee Good, 38, Pakria Darchia, 55 and security guard Faraz Tahir, 30.
The families of Ms Singleton, Ms Young and Ms Good – excluding Dawn’s father, multimillionaire businessman John Singleton – have engaged prominent barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC to represent them at the inquest.
The families of Ms Cheng, Ms Darchia and Mr Tahir are also legally represented, as are shopping centre management and both NSW and Queensland police.
Mr Singleton had urged the NSW Attorney-General not to proceed with the inquest because it would be too traumatic for the families of those killed to relive the events.
‘If it was going to bring some justice I would understand – but it can’t, it’s just so unfair,’ he has said.
‘No good can come of making the details of this public all over again, the CCTV footage images.
‘We all know what happened and who did it and he’s gone, there’s nothing to gain.’
Ms Chrysanthou said at a directions hearing earlier this month the victims’ families ‘except for John Singleton… understand the mandatory nature of this inquest and they support it’.
Ashlee Good was stabbed, turned and saw Cauchi attacking her daughter’s pram. She ran at him and fought him off, receiving a fatal wound
‘Their lives have been changed in a way that none of us can really comprehend,’ she said.
‘It is important for them to understand if anything else could have been done.’
At the same hearing, senior counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, confirmed no graphic footage of the attacks would be played in court.
At an earlier hearing in November, Dr Dwyer said the massacre ‘shocked our community and has caused unspeakable grief for the families and loved ones of those who were killed and injured’.
Dr Dwyer said Australians were fortunate to live in a country where such mass killings happened rarely but that was little comfort to the families of Cauchi’s victims.
She described their grief as ‘raw and deep’ and the depth of those losses ‘unfathomable’.
While most people who lost a loved one could grieve in private, the families of those killed at the shopping centre had been forced to do in public.
Joel Cauchi’s mental health will loom large in the inquiry. Evidence will include the reports of four psychiatrists and two general practitioners.
Dr Dwyer said evidence would be ‘clear and unanimous’ that Cauchi was ‘floridly psychotic’ on the day of the stabbings.
He had first been diagnosed as schizophrenic as a teenager at a time he was using cannabis and had been using cannabis in the days before the massacre.
NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott (pictured centre left arriving at the coroner’s court on Monday) will be among the first witnesses to appear the inquest this week
Around five and a half minutes after his attacks began, Joel Cauchi was shot dead by police officer Inspector Amy Scott (above with Cauchi)
Cauchi’s internet search records were ‘distressing’ and demonstrated he was ‘clearly unwell’.
He had made notes to himself about knives and on January 25 last year he had written ‘check out malls’.
There was no direct evidence he had a motive to commit the attacks but was consumed by ‘dark thoughts’.
‘The parents of Mr Cauchi have spoken publicly and express their shock and sadness at the actions of their son, a man who had struggled with mental illness since he was a teenager and had no criminal history,’ Dr Dwyer said.
Cauchi’s parents had been able to keep him on a treatment program until he was 36 but while living homeless in Sydney he had been completely unsupervised.
Among the issues to be canvassed will be Cauchi’s previous treatment and the circumstances of him ceasing the use of psychotropic medication since 2020.
The coroner will consider the emergency response of Westfield Bondi Junction staff and whether there should be restrictions on weapons such as the Ka-Bar knife Cauchi used to kill his victims.
Expert evidence will be heard comparing what happened at Westfield Bondi Junction with the Manchester Arena bombing of 2017 and the mass shootings in Christchurch in 2019.
At the time of the Westfield Bondi Junction attacks, Cauchi had been living rough around Maroubra in Sydney’s east and had not taken his psychotropic medicine for the past four years.
On the morning of April 13 he went to a Kennards storage unit at Waterloo in the inner-city and at 11.10am retrieved a backpack containing the Ka-Bar knife.
For the next four hours Cauchi used public transport to move between the city and eastern suburbs before entering Westfield Bondi Junction via Bronte Road at 3.12pm.
Dr Dwyer told the directions hearing in November what happened next as Cauchi began to attack unsuspecting shoppers with the knife he had hidden in his backpack.
‘In less than three minutes, he stabbed 16 people, killing six and injuring ten others,’ she said.
‘At 3.31pm, Mr Cauchi walked over the air bridge on level four towards the Sourdough Bakery, and he stood in line behind Ms Dawn Singleton.
‘Mr Cauchi removed the knife from his backpack, and as everybody knows, tragically, he stabbed and fatally injured Dawn, who was the first of his 16 victims.’
Jade Young, 47, became a victim of the Bondi attacks when she was waiting outside the Sourdough Bakery at Westfield on Saturday, April 13 last year
Yixuan Cheng, 27, was between the Cotton On and Peter Alexander stores when she was fatally attacked by Joel Cauchi
For the next 57 seconds Cauchi stabbed or attempted to stab anyone who came within his reach.
He stabbed Jade Young near the Sourdough Bakery at 3:33:01 and Yixuan Cheng between Cotton On and the Peter Alexander store at 3:33:18.
‘At 3.34, after exiting Myer and running back towards the Sourdough Bakery, and outside AJE Athletica, Mr Cauchi attacked Ashlee Good in the back from behind,’ Dr Dwyer said.
‘When Ashlee was stabbed, she turned and then saw Mr Cauchi attacking her daughter’s pram.
‘She ran at him and fought him off, receiving another stab wound as a result of that, this time in the chest, but undoubtedly saving the life of her daughter.’
Cauchi ran back past Sourdough Bakery and at 3:34:26 stabbed Faraz Tahir then fellow security guard Muhammad Taha.
‘He fatally wounded Faraz, and he seriously injured Muhammad,’ Dr Dwyer said.
Cauchi fatally stabbed Pikria Darchia at 3:34:51.
A member of the public lays flowers at a memorial outside Westfield Bondi Junction three days after the stabbing massacre
‘Pikria was the last person who was stabbed fatally that day, but other people were injured after that time,’ Dr Dwyer said.
‘At 3:35:40, Mr Cauchi stabbed the final 16th victim, who was seriously injured.’
Inspector Scott had been in her car when she heard a police radio alert and headed for the shopping centre. She entered level four of Westfield Bondi Junction at 3.37pm.
Civilians helped direct Inspector Scott to Cauchi, who began to run as she gave chase.
Four members of the public, armed with chairs and other objects, followed Inspector Scott, ready to assist.
Cauchi had fled along the level five air bridge and was about 15m from Inspector Scott when she first confronted him.
When Cauchi ran towards the police woman with the Ka-Bar held in his right hand she stepped back, yelled at him to stop and drop the knife, and drew her service weapon.
Cauchi did not stop and from 3:38:40 Inspector Scott discharged her pistol three times, killing the knifeman with shots to the shoulder and neck.
The fatal shots were fired less than six minutes after Cauchi had begun his stabbing spree and one minute and 19 seconds after Inspector Scott had arrived at the shopping centre.
Of Inspector Scott’s response that day, Dr Dwyer said: ‘There is no question as to the propriety of her actions.’
Dr Dwyer praised Inspector Scott’s ‘professionalism and courage’ and said she had clearly saved lives.
She also noted the ‘hope, courage and selflessness’ of civilians who witnessed the atrocity and moved quickly to help others.
Cauchi grew up in Queensland, mostly in Toowoomba, with his parents Andrew and Michele. They say he was diagnosed with schizophrenia around the age of 18 and for the next 18 years generally complied with taking medication.
From 2012 until February 2020 Cauchi regularly saw a psychiatrist and his medication was reduced over the years until it was stopped entirely in June 2020.
Cauchi had moved to Brisbane in February that year and from about that time until the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbings had no particular treatment plan.
