The family of Jade Young, a victim of the Bondi Junction stabbing rampage, has condemned the killer as a 'coward' and expressed doubts about the value of the coronial inquest. In April last year, Joel Cauchi killed six people and injured 10 others with a knife at Westfield shopping centre in Sydney's east.
During the final day of the five-week inquest at the NSW Coroners Court, Jade's mother Elizabeth told the court that her daughter had been 'denied a future'. She said, 'There is no comfort knowing our darling girl was hunted, a random casual target killed with a pigging knife.' Elizabeth described the killer as an 'unmedicated, chronic' man with schizophrenia.
Elizabeth said the media coverage of the attack compounded the family's trauma, with images of Jade's lifeless body broadcast worldwide. Her brother Peter said, 'To say I'm angered by my sister's death is an understatement,' and noted that Cauchi's 'rapid hunt found 16 victims, 14 of which were women.'
The inquest, which concluded on Thursday, examined the attack and how future incidents could be prevented. It heard from 50 witnesses and included over 40,000 pages of evidence. Other families also gave statements, including the mother of victim Dawn Singleton, who raised concerns about the identification of her daughter before relatives were informed.
