A psychiatrist’s decision to stop Joel Cauchi’s medication will be scrutinised by a coronial inquest into the stabbing spree he carried out years later.
Cauchi was experiencing psychotic symptoms in April 2024 when he fatally stabbed six shoppers at Sydney’s Westfield Bondi Junction and injured 10 others.
As an inquest into the rampage continues today, the Queensland psychiatrist who had previously treated Cauchi will step into the witness box.
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She will be asked about why she stopped his anti-psychotics and whether more could have been done after Cauchi’s mother later raised concerns about a decline in her son’s mental health.
Cauchi had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen but was successfully treated for decades.
However he ceased taking his medication in mid-2019.
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In the months after, a number of possible signs of relapse were known by those at the psychiatric clinic in Toowoomba, near Brisbane, the inquest heard.
Two nurses from the clinic have already given evidence about Cauchi’s treatment with both saying he did not present with any serious symptoms during appointments.
His mother told them he was hearing voices, expressing sleeplessness, and experiencing extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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While the nurses did initial consultations with Cauchi and sometimes his family, it was the psychiatrist who ultimately prescribed his medication and formed a treatment plan.
In early-2020 near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he moved to Brisbane.
While some attempt was made to arrange remote appointments, these were not covered by Medicare, the inquest heard.
A referral letter was sent to Cauchi’s GP but no follow-up was organised with mental health services in Brisbane.
His rampage at the Westfield shopping centre in 2024 was brought to an end after he was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.
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