The elderly parents of Westfield Bondi Junction mass murderer Joel Cauchi place no blame on anyone except their son – as harrowing new details were revealed at an inquest.
Andrew and Michele Cauchi, both in their 70s, emerged from his childhood home in Toowoomba on Tuesday and were devastated to learn that their son’s psychiatrist broke down in tears as she gave evidence in the NSW Coroner’s Court.
Joel Cauchi, 40, was experiencing psychotic symptoms when he fatally stabbed five shoppers and a security guard and injured 10 others at the busy Westfield in Sydney’s east in April 2024.
On Tuesday, the Queensland psychiatrist who took Cauchi off his two antipsychotic medications – clozapine and aripiprazole – five years before his stabbing rampage, issued a tearful apology to the families of the victims and Cauchi’s parents.
Cauchi had been on antipsychotic medications since he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 17. His psychiatrist, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, took him off the drugs because he didn’t like the side effects.
But his parents stressed that there was only one person who needed to apologise.
‘My son let us down,’ Mr Cauchi told Daily Mail at his Toowoomba home on Tuesday.
‘The mental health (system) did not let us down, the police did not let us down. The only person to let us down was my son.’
Mrs Cauchi wife added: ‘It’s too much, It’s just a horrible tragedy.’
After Cauchi was weaned off the two antipsychotic drugs in July 2019, his mother contacted the psychiatrist’s private clinic seven times raising concerns about possible signs of relapse.
This included that he was leaving notes around the house about Satanic control, experiencing extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder and was not sleeping well.
Cauchi also sent an email saying that he had developed an obsession with pornography, the NSW Coroners Court was told.
The psychiatrist said these were viewed as possible signs of a early relapse but later assessments found that he was not psychotic.
Cauchi was having trouble sleeping because he was up watching pornography, she said.
His other symptoms stemmed from stressors including a fear he had caught an STD after sleeping with a prostitute, the coroner heard.
Expert psychiatric evidence filed in the inquest has said Cauchi was ‘floridly psychotic’ at the time of the Bondi Junction attack.
However, the psychiatrist also rejected this.
Discharging Cauchi to his Toowoomba general practitioner after he relocated to Brisbane, the psychiatrist said there was nothing she could do to follow up.
Dr Dwyer suggested she could have made a phone call.
‘You could have done that, you just couldn’t charge for it,’ Dr Dwyer said, which the psychiatrist accepted.
Despite raising the alarm with the psychiatrist’s private clinic seven times, Cauchi’s parents refuse to lay any blame.
‘No one has let us down, if someone sends an email and it’s not worked on, so what,’ Mr Cauchi said.
‘My son was pretty good until he did this and he would not have gone back on medication anyway and I couldn’t put him back on either.’
His wife added: ‘He was sick.
‘He was out of his head and then Covid hit and he moved to Brisbane so we couldn’t supervise him.’
The pair recently told Daily Mail they wouldn’t travel interstate to attend the inquest in Sydney because it would be too emotional and bring back painful memories.
‘I won’t be going (to the inquest) because I’d be crying all the time,’ Mr Cauchi said.
‘I’d be bawling. I loved my son.’
Cauchi was a ‘high-functioning’ schizophrenic with a university degree, coming top in his class, and could speak German and Mandarin, his mother later told police.
He lived at home with his parents until he was 35, before moving to Brisbane in early 2020.
Cauchi entered the local Bondi shopping centre just after 3pm on Saturday April, 13, 2024 armed with a large knife.
He terrorised crowds of shoppers enjoying a day out, stabbing at least 16, including a nine-month-old baby, and killing six. His rampage was brought to an end after he was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.
Cauchi’s parents saying they have ‘no issues’ with her actions or that of the NSW Police.
It was the elderly couple who identified the killer as their son after watching it unfold on the news.
‘The police did a fantastic job,’ Mr Cauchi said.
Earlier at the inquest on Tuesday, the psychiatrist sobbed as she told the inquest she had been personally affected by the attacks.
‘I offer my sincere apologies to you that this tragedy has happened,’ she said.
‘I am aware that no words will ease the profound pain and suffering.
‘No psychiatrist in the world would wish on themselves for this trauma to happen.’
Two nurses have already given evidence about Cauchi’s treatment, and both have said he did not present with any serious symptoms during appointments.
The inquest continues.
Lifeline at 13 11 14 or beyondblue at 1300 22 4636.