Medical history deep dive to be carried out
Bondi Junction mass murderer Joel Cauchi saw a doctor in NSW last year for a physical issue related to his ear. It is understood it was not related to his mental health issues or schizophrenia.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the interaction was the only time Cauchi had come into contact with NSW Health, despite a long history of mental illness.
“What we’ve done is an initial look at what level of interactions that he had with the mental health system or other systems,” Mr Park said on Monday. “He came in contact with NSW in the back-end of last year for a physical ailment related to his ear and that is all we’ve found.
“Initially he does not seem to have had many interactions with us. I want to make sure we dive deep into this, we’ve got a range of different systems in NSW health, it’s a very large system but anything else that pops up we will make sure that’s available to the coroner and the police in terms of an investigation.”
The Queensland police acting assistant commissioner, Roger Lowe, said Cauchi had been diagnosed with a mental illness aged 17, for which he had received treatment, but that his mental health had subsequently declined in recent years.
He had interactions with the Queensland health system for his mental health more than a decade ago before being seen by a private therapist.
Yesterday it was revealed the final victim of the massacre was on the phone to her fiance just minutes before she was stabbed while shopping.
Chinese national Yixuan Cheng, 27, was killed along with five others during Cauchi’s horrific stabbing rampage on Saturday afternoon.
“Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any family here in Australia,” Nine News reporter Sarah Stewart said.
“Police spent (Sunday) trying to contact her family back home in China. She was simply at Westfield on Saturday shopping like everybody else.”
According to Chinese media, Ms Cheng was studying for a master’s degree in economics at the University of Sydney. On the day of the stabbings, Ms Cheng had finished some exams and had travelled to the shopping centre to try on some clothes.
Her fiance in China, known only as Mr Wang, told a Chinese publication he had spoken to Ms Cheng on WeChat just moments before the attack unfolded.
Mr Wang desperately tried to contact Ms Cheng after discovering there had been a stabbing.
Harrowing photos supplied to local media purportedly show Ms Cheng taking selfies while shopping at Westfield before her tragic death.
In a cruel double blow, Mr Wang revealed he had plans to marry Ms Cheng after she graduated at the end of the year. It’s understood he has booked a flight to Sydney.
Ms Cheng’s last text to her partner innocently discussed shopping for clothes before communication ceased.
Schoolmates of Cauchi have claimed he was “evil” long before he carried out the horrific stabbing rampage.
Cauchi was a student at Harristown State High School in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, until graduating in the early 2000s.
Those who sat beside him in class shared his yearbook photo to a Facebook group for former students. It led to fierce debate between the classmates, with some saying he had “evil inside him”.
“He looks evil in this photo,” one former schoolmate wrote.
One of his former classmates said they had seen Cauchi earlier this year walking through Grand Central Shopping Centre in Toowoomba, and were shocked at a significant change in his appearance in just a few short months.