A Queensland police officer has told a coronial inquest that a lack of resources explains why her colleague overlooked an email requesting mental health support for Joel Cauchi, a year before he stabbed six people to death in Sydney’s Bondi Junction.
The inquest on Monday heard from an officer who was acting as the police force’s only mental health officer for a district serving 220,000 residents when he received an email from another officer asking him to follow up with the Cauchi family.
It came after an incident in January 2023, when Cauchi called the police to his parents’ home in Toowoomba after his father confiscated his knives amid concern about his son’s mental health.
Cauchi’s mother told police: “I don’t know how we’re going to get him treatment unless he does something drastic.”
On Tuesday, the officer who was normally the mental health officer cried when asked about her colleague who was acting in the role for five weeks and missed the email.
“His oversight of [that] email is devastating and is not indicative of him as an officer or how he performed my role,” she told the court.
The inquest, scheduled for five weeks, is examining the stabbing of six people by Cauchi, who had schizophrenia, at Westfield Bondi Junction in April 2024.
Cauchi, then 40, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others at the shopping centre on 13 April last year before he was shot and killedby police inspector Amy Scott.
The inquest heard on Tuesday that between 2016 and 2020, police responses to mental health call-outs in Queensland jumped by more than 50%, but officers were not equipped with the “skills and knowledge” to cope.
The officer in charge of mental health intervention in the Darling Downs district – where Cauchi’s parents lived – said her position was “fast becoming an overwhelming role”.
“On any given day, I could receive 30 to 40 emails,” she told the court when referencing requests from other officers regarding mental health incidents.
The court heard that she was unable to find another officer to backfill her role while she was giving evidence during this week’s inquest at Lidcombe coroners court.
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She was due to take three weeks of leave soon, but there was only someone backfilling for one week.
The court heard had she been at work when the email was sent requesting a follow-up for Cauchi, she would have either called or met with the Cauchi family to discuss their options.
She told the court she would have searched Cauchi’s history in the police database and discovered he had three interactions with police for erratic driving.
The court heard she would have learned that in July 2022, Cauchi had repeatedly called a boarding school asking if could watch female students undertake sporting activities.
In 2021, police visited his share house following reports he was screaming and stating he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and off his medication.
The officer told the court that part of her follow up would have included “immediately” reaching out to her Queensland health counterpart to learn about their engagement with Cauchi.