Coroner finds trio behind terror attack had ‘shared delusional disorder’

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Queensland's state coroner has handed down key recommendations regarding the deadly ambush at Wieambilla three years ago.

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00:00It is quite unusual, but a number of psychiatrists were part of the coronial investigation and

00:08did determine that they were sharing that delusion, obviously led by Gareth Trane, but

00:12they had, their isolation had led them to become shared in those fantasies. So yes,

00:17an interesting finding and obviously a very traumatic one as it resulted for the victims.

00:24Okay, so the focus is on trying to prevent this happening again. What about the coroner

00:29mentioning that the online activities of Gareth Trane in the lead up to the incident and that they

00:34were carried out in plain sight, that they did not appear to be monitored or drew the attention of

00:40law enforcement agencies and that AI has the potential to be harnessed to detect, disrupt and

00:47respond to such behaviour? Yeah, absolutely. I think this is a really interesting suggestion that AI

00:53could benefit the investigators here to track the number of individuals. You have to remember a very

00:57significant number of individuals will be conversing online, sharing thoughts online,

01:02and it's very difficult for authorities to triage those to determine who are the most at risk of

01:08actually acting out violence towards others or themselves. So if AI could be a way of surveying

01:15that information and bringing it together for police and providing it to them in a risk profile so

01:20that they can see who they really need to be monitoring, I think that could be a very positive

01:25way forward. What about boosting funding to a specialist threat assessment centre?

01:32Yeah, absolutely. We've seen the rise of the sovereign citizen type and although the trains

01:37weren't fully embedded in that rhetoric, they certainly did have some very strong beliefs.

01:43They were very anti-authority, very anti-police and obviously delusional and paranoid as well and

01:49unfortunately had access to weapons. So I do think if there were some more coordinated discussions,

01:56intelligence sharing across state borders, for example, again, that could be something that could

02:01reduce the risk for officers going forward. Another suggestion is to consider if mental health

02:06assessments on weapons licence applications would be feasible. Do you expect that that would be

02:13possible? Well, certainly we have examples in other states, in New South Wales and WA, for example,

02:19there have been recent reforms and so I think it is certainly feasible that we could bring in those

02:25mental health checks. And in Queensland, if somebody does have a relevant psychiatric history,

02:29then they will require a doctor, a psychiatrist or a psychologist letter before they can obtain

02:34firearms anyway. But I think we can expand that to replicate some of the things we're seeing

02:39across the country. And that may well reduce the risk as well, because I think those psychiatric

02:44profiles are incredibly important when it comes to owning firearms. And what about a full-time

02:49intelligence officer in the missing persons unit? Yeah, so missing person cases often get overlooked

02:57and I think that anything that could help develop information that could bring solace to families in those

03:02missing persons cases. But obviously, this recommendation in this context is about a risk evaluation for police

03:09officers. So, you know, if that information had been gathered, if it had been shared across state

03:14borders, for example, it could have helped the officers understand more what they were going to.

03:18I mean, the coroner was very clear that you could never prevent an episode like this happening because

03:24it was so unusual, this, you know, the fact that they were waiting for police and it was a planned event.

03:30So I don't think anything can ever stop this type of incident happening. It's about reducing the risks

03:36and sharing information more appropriately. And Xanthi Mallet, you're in Queensland yourself. Just give us

03:42an insight into just how much impact this horrific incident had in the state and the prospect now for

03:52positive reform to come out of this.

03:54Well, positive reform is always the coronial outcome. So obviously they look at who died,

04:00why and who's responsible. But ultimately, it's about recommendations to prevent events happening.

04:04Again, that's one of the main coronial purposes of the whole inquiry. And certainly it rocked the

04:10entire state. You know, it was a major source of discussion. How do we prevent this happening?

04:15How do we assess people? How do we protect the public and the police when they're undertaking what looked

04:21like a fairly low risk activity? Nobody ever wants to see another William Biller. So I think if these

04:27recommendations are taken up by the government, then I think they could certainly reduce that risk

04:33profile, which is something that we would all like to see.

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