MY SON TARGETED WOMEN AS HE WANTED GIRLFRIEND
A KNIFEMAN who targeted women as he stabbed six people to death in a Sydney shopping mall was frustrated at not having a girlfriend, his father said.
Police shot and killed homeless assailant Joel Cauchi during his rampage in the Westfield Bondi Junction mall near worldfamous Bondi Beach on Saturday.
Police have ruled out terrorism and said the 40-yearold suffered from mental illness.
Andrew
Cauchi, the attacker’s dad, said he knew why his schizophrenic son had targeted women. ‘Because he wanted a girlfriend and he’s got no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain,’ the visibly distraught 76-year-old told reporters outside his home in Toowoomba in Queensland. ‘He’s my son, and I’m loving a monster. To you, he’s a monster. To me, he was a very sick boy.’ Mr Cauchi added he took five US military combat knives from his son when he was at the family home last year as he feared he may use them. ‘I told the police my son had schizophrenia and I’m worried for myself,’ he said.
The killer’s mother, Michele Cauchi, said his rampage was the ‘absolute worst nightmare’ of any parent of a mentally ill child. NSW police commissioner Karen Webb said detectives would question Cauchi’s family about his motives.
‘It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives that that seems to be an area of interest: that the offender had focused on women and avoided the men,’ Comm Webb said.
The only male killed was Faraz Tahir, a refugee who worked at the mall as a security guard. He was not armed.
Comm Webb said most of the 12 victims who survived their wounds were also women.
Yesterday police said the families of two victims based overseas had been informed of their deaths. They were Mr Tahir, 30, from Pakistan, and Yixuan Cheng, 27, from China. Also killed were Jade Young, 47; Dawn Singleton, 25; Pikria Darchia, 55; and Ashlee Good, 38.
Eight victims remained in hospitals yesterday, including Good’s ninemonth-old daughter, whose condition has improved from critical to serious.
The conditions of the other seven ranged from critical to stable.