Westfield Bondi Junction stings tragedy: Sobbing parents of crazed knifeman Joel Cauchi gun down their killer son
The parents of the Bondi Junction mass killer have admitted their son was a ‘monster’ who hated women because he was ‘frustrated’ at not being able to find a girlfriend.
Parents Michele and Andrew Cauchi opened up about their ‘troubled…beautiful boy’ Joel Cauchi, 40, who they said they ‘loved so much’ until he went on his murderous rampage.
Knife-wielding Cauchi killed five women and a man at Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday as he ran through the mall hacking and stabbing shoppers.
On Monday, his parents said he was mentally challenged and a diagnosed schizophrenic who had lived with them until he was 35 in Toowoomba, south Queensland.
His life was derailed when he tried to come off his anti-psychotic medication because ‘he wanted a life’ – but instead triggered his psychosis, his parents said.
‘How do you love a monster? Feed them!’ said tearful father Andrew Cauchi.
Andrew Cauchi spoke to reporters outside his Toowoomba home on Monday, two days after his son Joel stabbed six people to death at Westfield Bondi Junction
A devastated Michele Cauchi opened up about her son’s long battle with mental illness
‘I loved my son. But he had a fascination with knives.
“He had five or six army commando knives. He had a problem with women, he couldn’t get a girlfriend’.
Earlier, Mr Cauchi lashed out at the media pack outside his home in an angry outburst before his wife Michele stepped in to defuse the situation.
Mrs Cauchi said she was ‘so sorry’ for what her son had done.
‘He was brought up in love. He was a lovely child and he was in the care of his doctors for 18 years, she said.
‘He took his medication, then he asked the doctor if he could come down on it, and she did over a period of years, and she warned him very carefully about what could happen.
‘And when he came off it was as if his eyes had … it had all lifted from him and he wanted a life.’
‘Then after living at home until he was 35 he went to Brisbane.’
She added: ‘My heart goes out to the people our son has hurt.
‘If he was in his right mind he would be absolutely devastated by what he has done.
“But he was obviously not in his right mind. He had somehow been triggered into psychosis and he had lost touch with reality.’
‘We are just ordinary people and raised our son as best we could.’
Andrew Cauchi (left) lashed out at the media earlier Monday before his wife (right) stepped in to defuse the situation
Andrew and Michele Cauchi said they did everything they could to help their son Joel
Mrs Cauchi revealed that her son had been ‘first in his class’ and that ‘his teachers loved him.
‘He worked hard. He had a lot of friends growing up,’ she recalled.
Her husband admitted that his son was awkward.
Asked if he knew why his son targeted women, Mr Cauchi said ‘because he wanted a girlfriend and he has no social skills.
“He was frustrated out of his mind,” he said
Sir. Cauchi said he had “put myself through hell” watching footage of his son on the afternoon of the knife attacks.
“But I’m prepared to do it because I love my son and I want to find out what’s wrong,” he said.
“You have no idea how beautiful my boy is.”
Sir. Cauchi said that when his son was growing up, “everyone said what a lovely son you have”.
But he said Cauchi’s mental health problems from his late teens and early 20s meant “you couldn’t help him”.
He added: ‘I did everything in my power to help him. I would go down to Brisbane, spend the day with them, take him to the Gold Coast, take him wherever he wanted.
‘There is nothing I can do or say that can bring it back.
‘My son, my son… I love a monster. He is a monster to me. He was a very sick boy.
‘Do you think there is anything that could have been done differently with his mental illness that could have helped?’
Andrew Cauchi (left) revealed to reporters that his son Joel was awkward and had no social skills
Joel Cauchi lived at home with his parents until he was 35 and moved to Brisbane five years ago
Sir. Cauchi said he last saw his son via a selfie video his son Joel filmed looking happy on Coogee Beach on February 5, two months before the knife attacks.
His son had said on the video: ‘I just want to show you beautiful Coogee Beach,’ his father revealed.
“Can you imagine this boy … so happy … in five weeks or whatever he commits the atrocity?” Mr. Cauchi said.
“That’s what mental illness is. Mental illness is terrible.’
Sir. Cauchi said that if mentally ill people “just pick up a knife, they shoot them dead,” and he believed that only made it worse.
“You’re encouraging the mentally ill to do something crazy so they can get shot,” he said.
“This crime should never have happened. I don’t blame the police.
‘I took five US Army combat knives from him when I brought him up from Brisbane.
“I said, ‘Look Joe, you’re welcome to stay in my place. But you must not have these knives her.”
Cauchi denied that his son had ever threatened him, but added: ‘He was really angry.
‘He called the police and accused me of stealing his knives.’