Maniac Monis to blame

But coroner also criticises police, psychiatrist

POLICE waited too long when they took 10 minutes to storm the Lindt Cafe after gunman Man Haron Monis fired his first shot at fleeing hostages, NSW Coroner Michael Barnes has found.

The coroner handed down a 500-page report yesterday after his long-running inquiry into the deaths of hostages Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson during the December 2014 siege.

Mr Barnes laid the blame squarely on the “vicious maniac” Monis but other parties, including police and a consulting psychiatrist, were not immune from criticism.

He raised concerns over the failure of the police strategy, lack of training for negotiators, “ambiguous advice” given by the psychiatrist and the “inadequate” work of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions that allowed Monis bail while on serious charges.

But he said the situation would have challenged any of the world’s police forces and he praised the bravery of police.

“Monis deserves to be the sole focus of our denunciation and condemnation,” he said.

At 2.03am on December 16, an increasingly agitated Monis fired a shot at escaping hostages that satisfied a “secondary trigger” and should have prompted police to storm the cafe at Martin Place. “That made it clear there was little to no chance of resolving the siege, and those within the cafe were at an extreme risk of harm,” Mr Barnes said.

“The 10 minutes that lapsed without decisive action by police was too long.”

By the time tactical officers smashed their way into the cafe Monis had forced Mr Johnson to his knees and shot him in the head.

Ms Dawson was killed by bullet fragments during the shootout.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the delay was too long. “In hindsight, knowing everything we know now, NSW Police should have gone in earlier,” he said.

Police had feared Monis’s backpack contained a bomb and adopted a “contain and negotiate” strategy, which Mr Barnes says failed and must be reassessed.

Eight calls to a phone number hostages expected would connect them with negotiators were also missed, which was a “significant failure”.

Some of the coroner’s harshest individual criticism was reserved for the consultant psychiatrist who advised police, saying his “sub-optimal” performance included a belief that Monis was merely grandstanding.

The stand-off may never have eventuated in the first place, however, if Monis had not been granted bail on a charge of accessory to murder and dozens of sexual assaults.