Heartbroken mother tells inquest she's ‘lost her way' after ‘stuff of nightmares' murders at Bondi Junction
Elizabeth Young told the New South Wales coroners court on Thursday that her words were 'both a distillation and a manifestation of anguish'.
She said that it 'hurt terribly' that her loving, clever, compassionate, thoughtful and 'slightly goofy' daughter 'no longer has a chance to exist – to be in the future'.
'At 74, I have lost my way in life,' Young told the court. 'The moment he casually plunged that knife into Jade, our ordinary lives were shattered.'
Elizabeth Young was accompanied in court by her husband, Ivan, her son, Peter, and Jade's husband, Noel. Elizabeth's dog, Teddy, was also at the inquest. Family statements were being given during the final days of the five-week coronial inquest.
Schizophrenic man Joel Cauchi, 40, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, Faraz Tahir, 30 and Jade Young, 47. He injured 10 others at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April 2024 before he was shot and killed by police officer Amy Scott.
Elizabeth Young remembered laughing with her daughter about washing a blanket, sending her a photo of a perfect fairy ring of mushrooms and her final emoji message in the days before she was murdered.
Jade had been shopping with her daughter at the time of the attack. Elizabeth said her granddaughter later drew 'a plan of where mummy fell' in blue crayon.
'Pause and think on that,' she told the court.
Elizabeth Young described the coronial inquest as 'harrowing' and said 'some people lost sight of the truly awful fact that six people are dead'.
She said an accumulation of failures over many years led to Cauchi's murderous attack.
Australia 'doesn't seem to want to acknowledge what happened was … categoric … years of neglect within our mental health system', at state and federal levels, she said. 'My daughter was murdered by an unmedicated chronic schizophrenic.'
Referring to the senior counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer SC, she said: 'Dr Dwyer referred to individuals doing their best in fallible systems.'
'I'm sorry, but it seems to me that my daughter and five others were killed by the cumulative failures … [of a] whole series of systems,' she said.
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Elizabeth Young said if the inquest led to increased mental health funding and better security arrangements, 'all that would be good, but my daughter, my lovely, gentle daughter, is no more'.
'For me personally, no good will come from this inquest. She meant nothing to him, there is no comfort in closure, there is no way to make amends for what he took from me.'
The coroners court heard Elizabeth Young couldn't stand loud places, flinches at noise, startles easily, no longer listens to music or has flowers at home, sleeps badly, was anxious about social occasions and 'dreads' Saturday afternoons.
She also criticised how some members of the media had covered the attack.
'I learned a new phrase in the days after April 13: trauma porn,' she said.
Peter Young, who lives in Hobart, said his sister was murdered by a man who was 'fuelled by his frustration [of] not finding a nice girl to marry – what a coward'.
The five-week inquest, which began just over a year after the attacks, was scheduled to end on Friday.
It has examined potential failings in Cauchi's healthcare, the preparedness of the shopping centre for an active armed offender and the response of the police, ambulance service and media.
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