Training for Bondi mall security operator ‘troubling’
Miklos Bolza |
A newly hired security officer who was meant to be monitoring CCTV footage during a fatal stabbing spree had received additional training after concerns were raised about her competency.
An inquest into the April 2024 deaths of six people at the hands of Joel Cauchi at Sydney’s Bondi Junction Westfield on Thursday heard evidence about the security response at the shopping centre.
A coroner has heard that at the moment Cauchi started his stabbing spree, the CCTV control room monitoring 700 cameras was unstaffed.
With the sole operator on a bathroom break, no information was provided to guards on the ground and no public announcements were made until after Cauchi, 40, was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.
The security supervisor on duty that day gave evidence on Thursday, saying he regretted not personally heading to the control room after the first stabbing occurred.
He instead sent another trusted, experienced officer.
Competency concerns about the control room operator, who was new in the role, had been raised previously and she had received additional training, the supervisor said.
Despite this, she was left alone in the control room on April 13.
A former project and training manager from security sub-contractor Glad Group gave evidence, saying he could not remember any “red flags” being raised about the control room operator.
This was despite notes saying she was “not getting better” from meetings held between Glad and Scentre Group, which owns Westfield, in the weeks before the stabbings.
“I don’t recall any issues in terms of (her) performance being raised with me,” he told the court.
“That’s your evidence on oath?” counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC said.
“Yes,” he replied.
The court heard the officer twice incorrectly answered a question about security’s two main objectives when facing an active armed offender – get people to safety and send information to the police.
There was no follow-up to rectify this issue.
State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan said it was “troubling” the officer had been signed off as completing 21 training topics on a single day in January 2024 after only five weeks of study.
The manager, who can’t be legally identified, admitted that he may have been under pressure to rush through recruitment to make up shortfalls at the mall.
Bondi Junction Westfield security guards now receive additional training and practice drills for armed offender situations, the supervisor told the inquest.
Guards had also been issued stab-resistant vests.
The supervisor agreed with a suggestion that the CCTV control room should have two people in it at all times.
He became emotional as he described his team’s response to the attack.
Giving CPR to one of Cauchi’s victims, he heard gunshots and retreated with others to a nearby store, telling a retail staff member that he was “not going to die” in the mall.
“What we went through that day was truly traumatic and not everyone understands the fear and chaos we faced,” he told the inquest.
His voice breaking as he read from a written statement, he thanked the security guards on shift on the day, noting their strength and their pain.
“I’m truly grateful to every single one of you.”
Experiencing psychotic symptoms from untreated schizophrenia, Cauchi killed six people and injured another 10, including a nine-month-old baby.
Security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, was among those killed in the attack, while his colleague was injured.
Dawn Singleton, 25, Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55 and Yixuan Cheng, 27, also lost their lives in the attack.
The inquest continues.
AAP
