Bondi Inquest hears submissions on psychiatric care given to attacker

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An inquest into the Bondi Junction multiple stabbing has been told the attack was a highly predictable scenario as victims' families question whether there had been enough time and money spent on keeping people safe. On the final day of submissions, the company operating the Westfield centre insisted it had industry-leading security arrangements in place.

Transcript

00:00Joel Couchy's attack at the Bondi Junction Westfield in February last year claimed six lives.

00:07And today, on the final day of submissions at this inquest, the attack was described by Westfield's operator Centre Group

00:14as unprecedented in both its scale and its violence.

00:18But Sue Chrysanthou SC, who's a barrister representing three of the victims' families, said unprecedented does not mean unpredictable.

00:27She told the court today that this was a highly predictable scenario, that in a public place where there are many, many people,

00:34somebody may resort to violence using a weapon.

00:37And Sue Chrysanthou pointed to previous examples that we've seen, like the Lindt Café siege in Sydney.

00:43She told the court today that where a company invites masses of people onto its premises for its own commercial benefit,

00:50it needs to take the time and spend the money on keeping people safe.

00:55Sue Chrysanthou told the coroner today that, regrettably, Centre Group and the security contractor GLAAD did not do so.

01:02Now, Centre Group refutes that.

01:04It's accepted that there were some missteps in this scenario, particularly in the initial stages of its response.

01:10For example, sounding an alert, a warning tone far too late.

01:15But its lawyer told the court today that it had industry-leading standards and it had also made significant changes since this attack.

01:24For example, introducing stab-proof vests for security staff.

01:28The court was also told that the coroner is being urged not to make a finding that a CCTV operator was incompetent,

01:37following revelations that that CCTV operator was absent from the control room at the very moment this violence began back in February last year.

01:46Centre Group's lawyer told the coroner today that

01:49a finding like that of incompetence would be placing too much weight on the advantages of hindsight.

01:55So, while there appears to be a large collection of agreement in terms of the topics and the potential recommendations here,

02:02there are certainly narrow areas where the parties involved in this inquest disagree quite fiercely.

02:08Tell us, are the families still pushing for Joel Couchy's former psychiatrist to be referred to a regulator?

02:17Was that talked about today?

02:20They are.

02:21Well, Joel Couchy was treated by a psychiatrist in Queensland by the name of Dr. Andrea Boris-Levac.

02:27Now, he was under her care between 2012 and 2020 in Queensland before he moved to New South Wales

02:34where he was experiencing homelessness and he was also experiencing chronic schizophrenia for which he was unmedicated.

02:42Now, Dr. Boris-Levac has been the subject of a fair bit of criticism at this inquest

02:47because when she gave evidence earlier this year, she claimed that he was not psychotic on the day of the attack

02:54and she quickly resiled from that opinion.

02:57But she has attracted criticism for giving that conjecture in the first place.

03:02Now, today, her lawyer, Mark Lynch, told the court that she was not appearing at this inquest as an expert

03:11and it was grossly unfair to ask her to weigh in to that question of his mental state at the time.

03:17Mr. Lynch also told the court that it would not be warranted to refer Dr. Boris-Levac to a regulator in Queensland.

03:25That's been suggested by some of the victims' families.

03:29But he disagreed with that and he said that, for the most part,

03:32she provided largely acceptable and exemplary care to Joel Couchy,

03:39although she has made concessions that, towards the end of the care that she provided,

03:44her handover to her GP had some flaws.

03:47So she has made some concessions, but he really came out strongly quite today to defend that psychiatrist Lorna.

03:53Thank you very much.

03:55Thank you very much, Paul, and I look forward to hearing about this.

03:56And I hope you will see the video again.

03:58Thank you for listening.

04:01I'm my name is Alan Assistant.

04:08And my name is Alan Assistant.

04:09I'm the doctor and my name is Alan Petase-Kiss.

04:12Thank you, I am great to be here to hear me.

04:13And I'm part of that one of my name.

04:14There is my name is to tellerme and talk about psychiatrist Lorna.

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