Loss, pain and outrage are expected to be at the forefront of comments by families of those killed during a stabbing rampage at a busy shopping mall.
The statements will begin today as a five-week inquest wraps up into the mass killing at Bondi Junction Westfield on April 13, 2024.
At the time, Joel Cauchi, 40, had been experiencing psychotic symptoms when he killed six people and injured 10 others, including a nine-month-old baby.
Dawn Singleton, 25, Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Yixuan Cheng, 27 and security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, died.
Singleton’s mother and partner have already expressed anger after hearing her death announced by 2GB talkback radio host Ray Hadley before the family had been told by NSW Police.
“I find it highly offensive that (Hadley) appears to have capitalised on the unfathomable murder of my fiancee by immediately publicly broadcasting it on radio without even consulting her immediate family or myself,” her partner Ashley Wildey wrote.
The police watchdog has cleared NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb of any wrongdoing for allegedly releasing Dawn Singleton’s name to Hadley before her next-of-kin Wildey was informed.
Singleton’s mother Julie also found the media’s treatment of her family to be unacceptable, intrusive and unsettling.
The inquest has heard Cauchi had been successfully treated for schizophrenia since he was a teenager.
But he was weaned off antipsychotics and fell through the cracks of the mental health system before ending up homeless in Sydney.
After the statements finish on Friday, Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan will retire to consider what mental health recommendations she will make to ensure this type of tragedy does not repeat itself.
She may also suggest improvements to emergency responses, co-operation between NSW Police and NSW Ambulance, and how information about crime flows from police to the media.
