A court has heard some details of the medical history of Bondi Westfield killer Joel Cauchi in the years before his deadly attack.
An inquest - due to start in April - will examine the circumstances of the attack with the aim of stopping a similar tragedy from happening again.
It will look at issues including whether any intervention could have prevented Cauchi's mental health deteriorating to the extent that it did before the attack, which ended when he was shot dead by police officer Amy Scott.
The initial administrative hearing into the April 13, 2024 incident, which resulted in the deaths of six people, presented evidence regarding Cauchi's mental health treatment.
The victims of the attack were Ashlee Good, Jade Young, Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Faraz Tahir, and Pikria Darchia.
Cauchi had his medication gradually reduced by his psychiatrist prior to a significant decline in his mental health in the years before the incident.
It was disclosed Cauchi’s mental health had been stable under medication since he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2001, but his psychiatrist began tapering down his medication until it was completely stopped in June 2019.
By 2020, after moving to Brisbane, his mental state reportedly began to deteriorate.
Cauchi’s parents had expressed concern over his developing fascination with knives in the months leading up to the Westfield incident.
While he did not have a criminal record, Cauchi was known to police.
Police had visited Cauchi’s home in Toowoomba after a domestic incident involving his parents' attempts to remove the weapons he’d accumulated, which included a KA-BAR combat knife.
Despite the officers' concerns, they felt there was insufficient legal basis to involuntarily detain him under mental health grounds.
By early 2024, Cauchi had relocated to New South Wales and was reportedly homeless.
CCTV footage from the morning of the attack showed him retrieving a KA-BAR knife from a storage unit at Kennards and placing it into his backpack before heading to Westfield Bondi Junction.
Additional reporting by AAP
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