Bondi killer Joel Cauchi’s mum was ‘asking for help’ after he ‘laid his hands’ on his dad a year before the fatal attack

Bondi killer Joel Cauchi’s mum “was asking for help” after he “laid his hands” on his father when his knives were confiscated, but police were unable to refer him for an emergency mental health assessment. Six people were killed and 10 others were injured in the attack at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024. Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Faraz Ahmed Tahir, Ashlee Good, Jade Young and Pikria Darchia died in the incident. Cauchi, 40, had gone on a rampage through the palatial shopping centre with a WWII knife purchased at a camping store before being gunned down by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott. A five-week coronial inquest into the deadly stabbing began last Monday, with the first week revealing never-before-heard details about the incident. Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 17 and was medicated for more than a decade to treat the condition until he stopped taking all psychotropic medication in June 2019. He called the police on his father in January 2023, claiming he had stolen his military knives. Body-worn video was played in court, showing two officers, who cannot be identified, talking to Cauchi and his parents separately. Cauchi pushed his dad, called his mum a b**ch An attending officer who spoke to his parents told the other officer that Cauchi wasn’t on medication at the time but had been on a “significant amount of medication his whole life” previously. “Given that his mental health has declined a little bit over time … dad’s got them and given them to a friend … he’s worried about his mental health,” the officer said. “Today he’s actually laid hands on him, hands, like sort of ‘Give me my knives’.” Cauchi wasn’t thinking clearly, was up pacing around at 3am, but he hadn’t made any threats to harm anyone, the officer said in the video. “He’s called his mum a b**ch and things like that,” the officer said. “He’s never done that before … their relationship is usually very good. “He has told his mum that she’s a b**ch, laid his hands on his dad …. dad’s fine.” It wasn’t clear whether he’d called his mum a b**ch before or after his knives were taken. The court was later told Cauchi had pushed his dad, and he said he was defending himself when asked about it but that he had “no idea” why he was angry. “He was very angry at me,” he said in the footage played to the court. He also told the officer things were “normally fine” at home and that he was happy there. The attending officer who spoke to his parents said she had let Cauchi’s mum know he hadn’t said anything “that would have us take him away”, and his mum said he wouldn’t be getting his knives “because who knows, who knows what’s going on, especially if he’s going to lose contact with reality”. She said his mum was concerned because he couldn’t live with anyone else, and they were trying to figure out where else he could live after moving back from Brisbane. “Because there’s no history, and this is the first time it’s ever happened … maybe if you have a chat with him and say ‘Oi, don’t be f***ing laying hands on your parents, that’s serious’,” the officer said She said Cauchi would eventually get his knives back, but his dad was worried about his son’s mental health. Cauchi had been up late at night banging on the walls, the court was told. Body-worn camera footage from the other attending officer showed Cauchi appearing to be calm throughout the incident. “My dad has taken some of my property, it’s pretty expensive and he won’t give it back. I tried to resolve it,” Cauchi told the officer. Cauchi told the police officer multiple times he was concerned financially about his knives being taken, as they were very expensive and he’d need to replace them, the court was told. One of the attending officers told the court police receive brief mental health training at the academy, and are notified on relevant legislation changes, but have no direct training apart from that. One of the officers checked the police system during the interaction. It showed Cauchi was a weapons licence holder who had a mental health condition. The court was earlier told Cauchi had sought a psychiatric review to obtain a gun license, was deemed “a fit and proper person to be issued with a weapons licence” and then subsequently issued a statement of eligibility. The officer attending officer told the court on Monday that he was concerned Cauchi was a weapons licence holder and he’d made inquiries about this. When he asked Cauchi if he was a weapons licence holder, he said no. He also told the officer that he’d been feeling “better” since going off medication. Cauchi didn’t fit criteria for emergency assessment The court was told Cauchi didn’t fit the criteria to have an emergency health examination because he wasn’t at immediate risk of harming himself. Changes to criteria in the Emergency Examination Authority only allow those who have an “immediate threat to self” to be taken for emergency assessment Before 2017 it referred to those who were an immediate threat to themselves or somebody else. The officer said the change restricted officers when dealing with mental health issues, and that he’d support an amendment to give police the power to detain someone posing a risk to others. The court was also told of a mental health liaison service in Brisbane that would allow someone to provide advice to police at mental health related jobs and look at their history attached to the Queensland health system. The officer didn’t consider ringing the service. “We knew that Joel was at a safe place, the parents were happy for him to be there at that time … no indication he was a risk to himself,” the officer said. “From the indication we received it was only the start of the decline of his mental health.” The officer also indicated Cauchi appeared relatively calm compared to other mental health call outs. “He wasn’t dishevelled, he wasn’t erratic … he certainly wasn’t aggressive in any nature, presented especially initially quite calm and was engaged in conversations,” he said. He agreed there were things Cauchi said that didn’t make sense and that at times he was fidgeting, but that he was most concerned about him putting his hands on his dad. In other call-outs related to mental health, he said people can be quite emotional, withdrawn, or erratic, aggressive and “moving all over the place”. A DVO was made following the call-out, but the officer didn’t charge anyone over Cauchi’s report of a knife theft. One of the attending officers also sent an email requesting a follow-up on Cauchi’s mental health, however the email was missed. The officer said he hoped there would have been follow-up after sending off the email during cross-examination, however this did not take place. “Ultimately I was just hoping there would be engagement with the family and Cauchi … by somebody from the mental health incident co-ordinator office, and obviously they’d be engaging with Queensland Health to see if they had any holdings on Joel, and just a bit of a follow up to see how things were travelling at the house,” the officer said. Cauchi went out and bought a knife the next day, and made another complaint in February 2023 about his knives being stolen. One of the attending officers from the January 2023 incident was asked if there may have been another opportunity for intervention in February, and he said “possibly but I’m not aware of the context of the call”. Cauchi’s mum ‘was asking for help’ Body-worn footage was played in court where Cauchi’s mum, Michele Cauchi, told the attending officer it was the first time Cauchi had pushed his father, but that Cauchi needed to go to hospital. She said he’d been “raging” after his knives were confiscated, and that he “really needs to be on medication”. The court was told his mum said “I don’t think he’s psychotic, but I definitely don’t think he’s thinking straight, he needs to be on medication”. His mum also said Cauchi was a “totally different person” when he was on medication. “By all stretches (Cauchi’s mum has) done her very best to try and raise a good son, and like she said, while he’s medicated he’s a different person,” the officer told the court. “We’re talking about Joel who has a degree, he speaks different languages, he, as far as I understand, he’s a different person, but at the time when I met Joel, I met him for a couple of minutes, and then I spoke to mum. I only have the information that I have from mum, I don’t have any further information from Joel. “I sympathise with her, I believe what she’s saying, but as a police officer I don’t have the powers to act on what she’s saying.” She also expressed she had no power to take him back to the station and take an order out on him, or refer him for an emergency assessment. She said he was well-dressed, spoke well and that she could tell he was educated. “He was a high functioning human being and then he wasn’t: I don’t know when that decline happened,” she said. Cauchi’s mum was “asking for help”, and the attending officer believed sending that referral email was the best way she could get Ms Cauchi that help. Cauchi called police on February 25, 2023, to again complain his knives had been stolen, and the attending officer was told about the call. She made a note to the effect of Cauchi’s knives weren’t stolen, they’d been taken “so Joel can’t hurt himself or others”, and said in hindsight she could have sent a follow-up email about this. The court was told this incident was described as a “missed opportunity”, which she agreed with. “As a general duties officer we go to these places and we interact with people and I don’t know what Joel’s baseline is, I don’t know who he was, when he was medicated … I don’t know where he was in the decline or anything like that,” she said. “As an officer though I recognise that he did need to be plugged into someone who could offer more assistance than me, and so I wish that maybe I had of followed up with ensuring that had happened, but yeah, I think everyone’s doing the best they can.” She said mental health co-responders, which are now in place, would have been “perfect” and an “invaluable resource” for this situation. “We would have called them because he doesn’t meet the threshold of going to hospital, I legally can’t take him anywhere,” she said. ‘Does not know he’s sick’: Mum’s plea The court was previously told his mother had told Queensland Police in early 2023 her son “really needs to see a doctor but he does not know he’s sick” after Cauchi called the police, accusing his father of stealing his knives. Cauchi told police he could become broke and potentially be “at risk of being killed” as a result of his father confiscating the knives, which had been done over concerns about his son having access to them. While the officers “formed the view that Mr Cauchi was unwell” following the interaction, they didn’t think it was necessary to take immediate steps to have Cauchi assessed or arrested. One of the attending officers did send an email requesting a follow-up on Cauchi’s mental health, however “it appears that the email was missed”. The inquest is set to probe whether the lack of follow up after his interactions with Queensland Police was “a missed opportunity for intervention”. Police ‘generally not helpful’ in mental health incidents A senior NSW police officer who attended Westfield Bondi Junction on the day of the attack earlier said police in the eastern beaches area responded up to 130 mental health presentations per month. NSW Police Chief Inspector Christopher Whalley said it was “recognised” that police involvement in the mental health space “doesn’t provide the best outcomes” and is “generally not helpful”. “I think I still see a growth in police being called to that type of incident, which seems contrary to what the academic writings would suggest is the most appropriate way to provide help to those who are experiencing a mental health crisis,” Inspector Whalley told the court. “I think it’s well recognised that the mental health space in NSW … from a NSW Police perspective, is second only to domestic violence in terms of the frequency and the time that is consumed by it. “I often reflect on those academic writings and what they say about what offers the best outcomes for mental health consumers. “I think there’s opportunities to improve outcomes for people, and those outcomes might not involve police.”