Suspect freed on weapons offences
THE loner suspected of slashing the throat of a sex worker and stabbing another woman in yesterday’s Sydney CBD bloodbath was released by a court in June on weapons charges.
Mert Ney, 21, who has had a history of mental health problems, homelessness and drug use was arrested in April for possessing knuckledusters and let out on a conditional release order by Blacktown Local Court.
The conditions included that he seek mental health help. It is not known whether that was followed up, but he turned up at Blacktown Hospital’s emergency department last Wednesday, August 7, suffering from a drug overdose.
He burst his way out of an ambulance at 6.40am on August 8 as paramedics took him home.
Homicide detectives investigating where Ney spent the past five days believe he had a previous relationship with the prostitute, 21, after he met her online through the Locanto website.
Police have discounted formal links to terror groups, despite his apparent obsession with mass murders, including the recent right-wing killings by Australian gunman Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch, which killed 51 people.
But they have not ruled out laying terror-related charges.
A “thumb stick” drive with information about the New Zealand massacre and killings in the US was found on the 21year-old when he was tackled to the ground yesterday.
Witnesses also heard him yelling “Allahu Akbar” as he jumped on the bonnet and top of a black Mercedes Uber car waving a kitchen knife.
“There was certainly information found on him about mass casualties around the world,” NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said.
Mr Fuller said the man could face murder and serious assault charges and possibly terror-related charges.
“He is by definition at the moment a lone actor, information was found on him that would suggest he had some ideologies in relation to terrorism but he has no links to terrorism,” Mr Fuller said.
The single-storey home in Percy St, Marayong, where Mert Ney grew up in a traditional Turkish family was blocked off last night and his parents had moved out as police looked through his personal belongings.
He is believed to be estranged from his family and became reclusive two years ago when his parents split and his father, an IT consultant, moved to London. Neighbours remember him walking down the street shouting, “There is no God”.
“He was locked in his own world, just in his own head all the time, you can tell he wasn’t well,” neighbour Hulya Sert, 55, said. “He was Muslim, but he never went to any mosques and said he didn’t believe in religion.”