The man who fatally stabbed six people in a Sydney shopping centre last April had a “preoccupation with death and murder” and made online searches for serial killers and the Columbine school shooters in the days before his attack, a court has heard.
It also heard that at the moment the attack began, the sole CCTV security room operator had been using the bathroom and re-entered the CCTV room less than two minutes later, towards the end of Cauchi’s stabbing rampage.
Joel Cauchi, 40, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April 2024 before he was shot and killed by police inspector Amy Scott.
On the first day of the five-week coronial inquest into the incident, senior counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC said police had reviewed Cauchi’s phone and web browsing records, which were “distressing” and demonstrated Cauchi was a person who was “extremely unwell” and preoccupied with mass killing and violence.
Cauchi, from Toowoomba in Queensland, was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and had been sleeping rough on Maroubra beach on the morning of the attack, she said. He had been using cannabis in the days before the attack, which would have likely exacerbated his psychotic symptoms, the court heard.
Cauchi’s internet searches before the attack
The court heard that in late 2023 – at around the time he was assessed by a psychiatrist during a single care episode – Cauchi searched online for “what neuroscience can tell us about the mind of a serial killer”, “12 common traits of a serial killer” and “famous serial killers”.
In March 2024, he researched the type of military knife he eventually used in the attack, and in April 2024 he searched for “14 bands that serial killers loved”. His search terms involved killing, serial killing and, specifically, “cop killer”, said detective chief inspector Andrew Marks, the police officer in charge of the investigation.
Dwyer told the New South Wales state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, Cauchi may have done “rudimentary planning” before the Bondi Junction stabbings, with notes on his phone from January and February 2024 suggesting he was planning an attack. But apart from providing an “insight into [Cauchi’s] inner turmoil and dark thoughts”, there was no direct evidence indicating a motive for the attack.
Although 13 women among the 16 victims, Marks said there was no evidence women were his target.
“From the start of his attack, he moved very quickly and he appeared to attack people who were not ready, who didn’t know what was happening,” Marks said. “I just believe that whoever was in his way … was who he attacked.”
The court heard Cauchi’s schizophrenia was appropriately managed from the age of 17 to about 36, but by the time of the attack he had been unmedicated for five years. He was “effectively lost to follow up”, Dwyer said.
During that time, he appeared to have sought a gun licence and had obtained a “statement of eligibility” to join a pistol club. Evidence shows “he did not follow through with a gun licence and that is very, very fortunate”, Dwyer said.
She said the inquest did not seek to stigmatise those living with schizophrenia, but that it was “an unavoidable fact” that a small number of homicides were committed by people with psychiatric illnesses.
Cauchi’s parents – who had in 2023 communicated with police about their concern about their son’s collection of hunting knives – contacted the police after seeing him on news reports on the evening of the attack.
How prepared was Westfield?
Dwyer said the level of Westfield shopping centre’s preparedness for an active armed offender would be central to the proceedings.
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Cauchi began his attack at 3.32pm, but it wasn’t until 3.52pm that an emergency announcement to the public and staff within Westfield was made, well after Cauchi had been shot dead. When the operator read an evacuation warning over the Tannoy system, she sounded so “distressed and distraught” that some people thought she had been taken hostage and was making the announcement under duress.
The security room operators did not contact emergency services until after members of the public had called 000.
“Security staff were effectively behind the eight ball, that is they were effectively playing catch-up,” Dwyer said.
“In effect, some form of leadership vacuum in the first hour” had hampered management of the emergency response, she said.
Had Scott not been on the scene so quickly, “there’s a real possibility that Mr Cauchi’s attacks may have continued”, she said.
Scott – who was the first officer on the scene – fired three rounds, with two hitting Cauchi and a third hitting a pot plant behind him, Marks said. Cauchi fell 6.5 metres from Scott.
Marks said she had the presence of mind to direct two women with prams who were behind Cauchi to get out of the way. They had been close to the pot plant that was hit by a bullet.
Scott is expected to appear in court on Tuesday. In a directions hearing in November, a court heard her actions “clearly saved lives”.
Other witnesses in the first week include civilians Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot – dubbed “bollard man” after confronting Cauchi on an escalator; police Ch Insp Christopher Whalley; paramedic Christopher Wilkinson; ambulance commander, assistant commissioner Brent Armitage; and a special operations team paramedic.
The court heard the brief of evidence was “enormous”, with 40 witnesses giving evidence about 17 discrete issues.
