A coroner’s court has heard that it took just three minutes for homeless and mentally unwell man Joel Cauchi to fatally stab six people and injure 10 more in a frenzied attack in a Bondi Junction shopping centre in April.
Cauchi, 40, killed six people on Saturday 13 April before he was shot and killed by police inspector Amy Scott.
On Tuesday morning, the New South Wales state coroner heard Cauchi, who grew up in Toowoomba in Queensland, had been sleeping rough in Maroubra on the morning of the attack.
Counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer SC told the court that Cauchi arrived at about 7.30am at the Kennards storage unit he rented in Waterloo, where he slept and charged his phone before leaving and returning to collect a large knife and placed it in his backpack.
He entered Westfield shopping centre shortly after 3.30pm, beginning the attack at 3.32pm and 57 seconds, when after “fidgeting” in line at a bakery, he removed the knife from his backpack and fatally stabbed Dawn Singleton, 25. He then fatally stabbed Jade Young, 47, and Yixuan Cheng, 25, before attacking Ashlee Good, 38, from behind. The court heard that the mother turned and saw him then attacking her nine-month-old baby, who was in a pram, and received another stab wound when she intervened to “undoubtedly” save the life of her infant.
Cauchi immediately continued his attack, killing security guard Faraz Tahir, a 30-year-old Pakistani citizen, then Pikria Darchia, 55.
Five minutes and 43 seconds after the attack began, Cauchi was shot dead by Scott, who was on duty nearby. Just over a minute passed between her arrival at Westfield and shooting him dead.
Dwyer said that no alarm sounded within Westfield Bondi until about one minute after Cauchi was shot.
“It’s presently unclear why it took so long for the alarm to sound,” she said.
At the directions hearing for the inquest into the mass stabbing event, state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan acknowledged the pain and loss caused that day.
“At the outset, I offer my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones who are here in court today as well as those who can’t be here with us in person. It’s important to me and my assisting team … that you feel safe, you feel heard and you feel cared for throughout this coronal proceeding,” she told the court.
Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. The court heard that he collected large knives, including a Ka-BAR USMC utility fixed blade knife – and that in early 2023, the police were twice called to Cauchi’s family home, where he told officers that his knives had been stolen by his father. Investigations revealed Cauchi’s father had confiscated the knives because of concerns around his son’s mental health.
Cauchi had received mental health treatment until 2020, and had stopped taking medication for his schizophrenia in 2019, Dwyer said. His mental health deteriorated between then and April.
The court heard that Cauchi’s parents recognised their son from the CCTV footage shown on 6pm news on the evening of the stabbing. They called police and have assisted with investigations since.
Dwyer said the inquest, set down for five weeks from 28 April 2025, will centre on six issues, including Cauchi’s background, his mental health conditions and treatment in Queensland, and interactions with police before 13 April. A precise chronology of events that day will be investigated, as will the nature of the response from Westfield’s owners, Scentre Group, and its security subcontractors, Glad Group and Falcon Manpower Solution.
A further issue, she anticipated, will be the type of alarm that was activated and whether it was appropriate. The alarm used was so loud that it impaired first responders’ capacity to communicate with each other, she said.
Dwyer said that while an inquest is mandatory after any death in the course of a police operation, she did not anticipate any criticism of Scott’s use of force.
On the contrary, she said the officer’s actions “clearly saved lives” after Cauchi “posed an immediate and ongoing deadly threat to citizens”.
Dwyer paid her respects and expressed her deep condolences to the families of those who lost their lives that day on behalf of the bar. She said the event “shocked our community” and has caused “unspeakable grief for the families and loved ones of those who were killed and injured”.
She said national and international experts, including an expert in active armed offenders from London’s New Scotland Yard, will appear. Also expected to give evidence are treating doctors and mental health experts.
Dwyer said gaps in the healthcare Cauchi received “exposed him and the community to the risk of harm”.
She said she expects to hear that there is a strong need for sustainable serviced housing for mentally ill people, and that such a service could have assisted inp preventing the decline in Cauchi’s mental health.
While she said the events of 13 April were very rare and she was “conscious to avoid stigmatise those living with a mental illness”, she said that a mental illness can be “catastrophic – as it was in this case”.
She said the inquest would be trauma-informed and as respectful as possible.
“Thankfully in this country tragedies like this are rare – but when they do happen, they happen quickly and they cause chaos” she said. She added that she hopes the inquest will highlight weak spots and deficiencies in procedures and prevent future deaths.
“If there are flaws in systems, parties are asked to help the assisting team to identify them,” she said.
The coroner said she may make recommendations in relation to any matter relating to the deaths, with a view to improving the public safety.
Outside the court, two of Tahir’s brothers spoke about the importance of being at the court proceedings.
“What has happened cannot be changed, but we pray and hope that through the investigation, they are able to come up with better plans and better equipment for security guards,” Muzafar Ahmad Tahir said through an interpreter.
