Lawyers at a preliminary hearing for the coronial inquest into the Bondi Junction stabbings have flagged they will investigate potential failings in the mental health systems and Westfield security protocols. Six people were killed, and several others were left wounded by the attacker in April.
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00:00A preliminary hearing into the Bondi Junction stabbing attack in which six people lost their
00:07lives in April in Sydney's east this year, and also resulted in the death of the attacker
00:13Joel Couchie, has taken place at New South Wales Coroner's Court today.
00:18The council assisting the coroner, Dr Peggy Dwyer SC, opened her side of the proceedings
00:25by detailing the events in the years of Joel Couchie's life in the lead up to this attack.
00:30She explained to the coroner that Mr Couchie had quite significant mental health issues,
00:36namely schizophrenia, and wasn't treated or medicated for those issues in the years leading
00:41up to the attack.
00:42She told the coroner that he had been sleeping rough in Sydney in a pavilion in Mooroobara
00:47in Sydney's eastern suburbs in the weeks leading up to the attack and his mental health had
00:52been deteriorating over some time.
00:56Dr Dwyer then went into quite confronting detail of the minutes of the attack itself
01:02at the Bondi Junction shopping centre, commencing with the stabbing of Ashley Good in line at
01:07a bakery, and then detailing the killing of all six people who lost their lives on that
01:14day.
01:15Dr Dwyer then went to explain the key lines of inquiry which will be at the focus of this
01:20coronial inquest, which will take place in full next year.
01:24The first of which being whether Joel Couchie slipped through the cracks of the mental health
01:29system and what could have potentially been done such that his conditions were treated
01:33and he was less of a danger to the community.
01:37The interventions of New South Wales and Queensland police will be examined in that area.
01:43The other key issue was whether Westfield Centre Management, the company that operates
01:49the Westfield shopping centres and their subcontractors, whether any procedures, risk assessments,
01:58training for security guards could be improved.
02:01One thing that was flagged was that on that day the alarm wasn't triggered at Westfield
02:06in Bondi Junction until nine minutes after the attack had commenced and at the point
02:11that the alarm was triggered, Joel Couchie had already been shot dead by a police inspector.
02:17The other key line of inquiry is looking at what can be improved or learnt for emergency
02:23services and the council assisting was quite clear that that wasn't to cast blame on any
02:29of the officers or people who attended that day and in particular singled out Inspector
02:35Amy Scott, the police officer who finally neutralised Joel Couchie and commended her
02:41work to protect the community.
02:44Also present here were the families of many of the victims of that attack and the family
02:50of Perez Tahir, the security guard who lost his life on that day.
02:55His two brothers were here, they travelled internationally to be here and be part of
02:59this process.
03:00They said that that was important to them to understand what happened.
03:05They said that they were proud of their brother and the work that he did on that day to try
03:09to protect the community and just doing his job, here's what they had to say.
03:14Perez, he was a brave man and as you know he was bare handed and he just trying to stop
03:22the, he was on the duty at that time and he just trying to stop the attacker and gave
03:29his life.
03:30Now a key message from the brothers and from many of the people involved in this process
03:35is that the focus is on trying to learn and improve those systems such that a tragic event
03:40like this could be prevented in the future.
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