00:00Several people praised for their bravery during the Bondi stabbing attack last year in April
00:08will today give their evidence here at the Coroner's Court in Lidcombe
00:12and among those people is NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott
00:16who shot dead Joel Couchie as he went on a stabbing rampage
00:20through a Westfield shopping mall in Bondi Junction.
00:24Six people were killed and ten others were injured
00:27and Amy Scott was praised for her bravery, courage and her professionalism
00:33on the first day of the court and first day of the inquest yesterday
00:37for her handling of the situation.
00:40As people ran from danger, she ran towards it.
00:43Two French nationals will also give evidence today
00:47as they fended off Mr Couchie with bollards inside the mall
00:51and they're expected to be the only two civilian eyewitnesses
00:56to be called to the stand in the hearing, at least so far.
01:00The court also heard yesterday the sort of disturbing mindset of Mr Couchie
01:06and how he had an obsession with serial killers, death and also had planned the attack
01:12and the inquest was told that it's highly unlikely we'll ever know the true motive behind why
01:17he did what he did.
01:20A couple of key elements that are being looked into over this inquest
01:23is the handling of security at the Westfield shopping mall.
01:26This is run by Centre Group and it was revealed yesterday in court
01:30that there was only one security guard monitoring CCTV cameras at the time of the attack
01:37and when Joel Couchie went on that attack, that person was in the toilet at the time
01:43and by the time she returned, Joel Couchie had already stabbed eight people,
01:47three of which went on to die.
01:50And so there will certainly be significant questions around how security staff are trained
01:55and what could be done to better prepare for situations like this in the future.
02:01Mental health services has also come under the spotlight in both New South Wales and Queensland.
02:08The 40-year-old suffered from chronic schizophrenia and it wasn't
02:12and it was left untreated for five years leading up to the attack.
02:19Obviously this is a confronting and emotional time for families.
02:23What's been their response?
02:26Yeah, there's been an extraordinary amount of evidence prepared for this inquest
02:31and that's very confronting for those families that now have to sit
02:35and relive that experience over the next five weeks for this inquest
02:40and it's caused a lot of division amongst some families.
02:43One in particular, John Singleton, who lost his 25-year-old daughter Dawn Singleton
02:48during the attack, has come out and said he would like to have the inquest shelved.
02:55It's important to note that this inquest is a chance for people to look at
03:00what led up to this event and what could be done to prevent something like this
03:05from happening in the future.
03:06John Singleton has said that it's only set to bring more stress and trauma
03:11for the families impacted from that attack.
03:15Here at the Coroner's Court in Lidkamp, family and investigators and lawyers
03:19will be coming and going over the next five weeks
03:21as this inquest runs from 10am to 4pm every week up until May 30th.
03:26So, let's look at this inquest.
03:27So, let's see if this is what happens for us.
03:29Probably shouldn't have been to the leaves.
03:31So, in this right now,
03:33let's look at the confusion always in front of the station
03:35because of the darkness of the familiar,
03:37because the darkness of the leaves are alone and the light of darkness
03:39and then there's more laby in dentro now.
03:42Notice that there are probably things that happen
03:45and the light of darkness of light,
03:48it's only being inmate right I do not see if this creature.
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