Joel Cauchi's 'horrified' parents have spoken out about the reasons they believe their 'sick' son was driven to kill.
The knifeman, 40, went on a bloody rampage on Saturday afternoon after storming the crowded Westfield shopping centre at Bondi Junction in Sydney. He killed six people, five women and one man, and injured 12 others, including a nine-month-old baby who is recovering in hospital after surgery.
Police have said they will be investigating whether Cauchi intentionally targeted women after New South Wales police commissioner said it was 'obvious' the attacker focused on women. His victims were Yixuan Cheng, a Chinese student, Dawn Singleton, the 25-year-old daughter of an Australian businessman, 47-year-old Jade Young, who worked as an architect, 55-year-old Pikria Darchia, 38-year-old mum Ashlee Good.
The only male who died was 30-year-old security guard Faraz Tahir, who is believed to have been on his first day shift at the mall. Cauchi's parents told Australian media that their son was a "very sick boy" who suffered from schizophrenia and may have targeted women because he couldn't get a girlfriend.
Speaking outside the family home, the killer's dad Andrew told Australian media: "He wanted a girlfriend and he has no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain.
"I'm loving a monster. To you, he's a monster but to me, he was a very sick boy." Cauchi's mother Michele added: "This is a parents' absolute nightmare, when they have a child with mental illness, that something like this could happen.
"And my heart goes out to the people our son has hurt. If he was in his right mind, he would be absolutely devastated at what he's done. But he obviously was not in his right mind. He'd somehow, had been triggered into a psychosis and he'd lost touch with reality."
Among his victims were mothers - mum-of-two Jade Young and new mum Ashlee Good, who died while desperately trying to save her little girl. Meanwhile, Dawn Singleton was soon to be married to her police officer fiancée, Ashley Wildey, who had just finished his shift when he was dispatched to the mall where his childhood sweetheart had been stabbed to death.
In a statement released through Queensland Police, Cauchi's family said he "battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager." Of his intended victims, New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, told Australia's ABC News: "The videos speak for themselves, don't they? It's obvious to me, it's obvious to detectives... that the offender focused on women and avoided the men.
"We don't know what was operating in the mind of the offender and that's why it's important now that detectives spend so much time interviewing those who know him." The police investigation has driven many to speculate whether Cauchi identified as an incel, with the topic trending globally.
An incel, which stands for involuntary celibate, is a member of an online community of men who consider themselves unable to attract women, and typically, they have hostile views towards sexually active women. Analysis of incel chatrooms found that references to inflicting violence are eight times higher than in 2016, when researchers first began tracking the content.
Academics from the University of Exeter said last year that almost 1,000 references to dehumanising misogyny or violent action are recorded each day in the "incelosphere", reports the Guardian. In recent years, there has been a small, but growing, number of violent attacks that have been attributed to individuals who identify as incels.
Research by Swansea University found that incels were typically in their mid-twenties, heterosexual and childless and that they 'typically display extremely poor mental health, with high incidences of depression and suicidal ideation'. In 2018, a self-described incel, Alek Minassian, killed 11 people when he ploughed onto a busy Toronto sidewalk.
Motivated by his hatred of women, a judge found he intended to kill and sentenced him to life in prison. Closer to home in the UK, incel Jake Davison, who expressed strongly misogynist views in the months leading to his murder-suicide, killed five people in Plymouth in August 2021.
The 22-year-old shot Lee Martyn, 43, and his three-year-old daughter, Sophie, as she pushed a buggy while they walked the family dog. He gunned down another dog walker, Stephen Washington, 59, in a park and artist Kate Shepherd, 66, who had just been shopping. He killed his own mother after an argument.
A month before the shooting, Davison filmed himself talking about his "lack of success at dating apps, disillusionment of life and self hatred". He described himself as "fat, ugly" and a "virgin", and expressed disappointment at him missing out on relationships. At an inquest into the deaths of the five victims, the court heard of Davison's fascination with heroes of 'incel ideology'.
Following the shocking Sydney stabbing, it was revealed that Cauchi was known to police. Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner, Roger Lowe, described the killer as an "itinerant", and confirmed he hadn't been "pprosecuted or arrested or charged for any offence within Queensland".
He added: "He has been in contact with the police, primarily in the last four to five years would be the most contact we have had with him. During that contact we are aware that this individual has suffered from mental health".
In a post on a Facebook group in December 2020, Cauchi wrote: "I am looking for groups of people who shoot guns, including handguns, to meet up with, chat with and get to know." It has been reported that he had set up profiles on several male escort websites, including Australia Cracker, Empire Escorts and Escorts Australia.
He described himself in one profile as an "athletic good-looking 39-year-old" based in Sydney who was looking for a "fun time". In a photo posted on one escort site, he is pictured sitting on a chair wearing a Manchester United football shirt.