Rachell Corbett: Emotional moment Project host sums up how every Aussie mum feels about Westfield Bondi Junction knife massacre and 9-month-old baby now fighting for life
A host of The Project, who recently gave birth to her first child, broke down in tears on air while discussing the horrific knife massacre at a Sydney shopping centre.
Joel Cauchi, 40, killed six people and injured a dozen more when he stormed Westfield Bondi Junction armed with a 30cm hunting knife on Saturday afternoon. He was eventually shot and killed by a police officer.
Among the victims was osteopath Ashlee Good, 38, and her nine-month-old baby. Dr. Good sadly died when she arrived at the hospital and her daughter remains in intensive care.
Speaking on Sunday’s episode, Rachell Corbett was overcome with emotion, saying: ‘It’s so hard to do shows on nights like this.’
“Never in this country do we go into stores and think something like this could happen,” she said.
‘You feel like you’re 100 per cent safe when you’re walking around a shopping centre.
“I just can’t stop thinking about that poor poor baby and that dad who now doesn’t have his partner … It’s just so hard.”
Rachell Corbett, who recently gave birth to her first child, broke down in tears on air while discussing the knife massacre at a Sydney shopping centre.
Mrs Corbett (pictured while pregnant) took time off from the show last year to give birth to her first child, who she is raising as a single parent
Ms Corbett briefly left The Project’s panel last year to give birth to her first child and revealed she will raise her daughter as a single mother.
The show’s other hosts also expressed their heartbreak over the incident, which Sarah Harris described as ‘an hour of madness’.
Dr. Good is believed to have been one of the first to be attacked during the horrific incident that has shocked Australia and the world.
The mother desperately gave her daughter to a stranger when she and her child were stabbed.
The man who took the infant and his brother then used second-hand clothes from a store to try to stem the baby’s bleeding.
“The baby was stabbed and yes, the mother was stabbed,” one man told 9News.
‘The mother came over with the child and threw it at me.
‘I just helped by holding the baby … and trying to compress the baby.’
The brothers stayed with the mother and called emergency services.
“(It was) very bad… a lot of blood on the floor… hope the baby is okay,” said the other brother.
Ms Good’s family said in a statement that they were ‘sorrowed by the terrible loss of Ashlee’ and remembered her as ‘a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all in all an excellent person and so much more’.
“We appreciate the well wishes and thoughts from members of the Australian public who have expressed an outpouring of love for Ashlee and our baby girl,” the statement read.
“We are so grateful for the expert care and attention provided by the medical team at Sydney Children’s Hospital.
‘We would also like to thank the New South Wales Police for their kindness and diligence in this tragedy and emergency services for getting our baby the care she needed as quickly as possible.
‘To the two men who held and looked after our baby when Ashlee couldn’t – words cannot express our gratitude.’
Ashlee Good (pictured) desperately gave her daughter to a stranger when she and her child were stabbed.
Cauchi (pictured during the attack) killed six shoppers and injured several more, including Mrs Good’s child, before he was shot dead by a police officer
Four other victims of the attack have since been identified: advertising heiress Dawn Singleton, 25, security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, mother-of-two and architect Jade Young, 47, and artist Pikria Darchia, 55.
TheWSTNews Australia understands Saturday was Mr Tahir’s first week on the job, but he fought heroically to protect customers from Mr Cauchi’s rampage.
He immigrated to Australia last year after fleeing persecution in Pakistan and is just one of many Australians who have been hailed as heroes for their actions during the incident.
They include the police officer who shot and killed Cauchi, Inspector Amy Scott, a man who restrained the killer with a bollard, Damien Guerot and lifeguard Andrew Reid, who provided first aid to the injured.
Co-host Hamish MacDonald added ‘in that short space of time we saw the worst of what society is capable of, but also the best’.