'Trauma porn': media urged to reflect on role as victims' families speak at Bondi Junction stabbing inquest

The Guardian

30-05-2025

Families of some of the victims of the Bondi Junction stabbings have told the inquest that intrusive media tactics compounded their grief and that inaccurate reporting was rife.
The inquest was extended to examine media reporting in the immediate aftermath of the event and the impact on the families of the deceased, giving the public a rare insight into what it's like to be at the centre of the media spotlight.
Ashley Wildey, whose partner, Dawn Singleton, was one of six victims of Joel Cauchi on Saturday 13 April 2024, said reporters gathered outside a family member's home the morning after the murders 'trying to get vision of me or my family there'.
He said he was bombarded by 'highly inappropriate' messages from journalists 'lacking any genuine compassion' sent to his private social media accounts. He ignored them all.
'I feel that the media involvement to date has lacked empathy and truthfulness which has only served to exacerbate my pain and that of those who actually knew Dawn,' he told the New South Wales coroner's court.
Wildey said reports that Singleton had been shopping for wedding makeup were not true. 'I am not aware of any basis for this claim,' he said. 'It is false. As far as I am aware, Dawn did not go into the Chanel store in Westfield Bondi Junction on the day.'
Jade Young's mother, Elizabeth Young, said TV reporters appeared outside Jade's home the morning after the tragedy.
Young, 74, said she was shocked by the graphic images of the aftermath broadcast on television.
'Images of Jade's lifeless body being worked on were cast throughout the world … including on a national channel's evening news,' she said.
'I learned a new phrase in the days after April 13: trauma porn.'
Dawn's mother, Julie Singleton, said she received notes, emails, text messages and phone calls from reporters for months and she felt her privacy had been violated.
And while she was forbidden by police from seeing her daughter's body inside Westfield, the media were permitted to film her daughter's body being taken out of the centre on a gurney.
But Singletons's family reserved their strongest criticism for former 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley who said her name on air while speaking to 3AW presenters Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft on the Monday morning before they had formally identified her body.
'I find it highly offensive that [he] appears to have capitalised on the unfathomable murder of my fiancee by immediately publicly broadcasting it on radio without even consulting her immediate family or myself,' Wildey said.
Singleton: 'I felt that we as a family had a right to privacy. All this coverage distressed me and my family greatly.'
Counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer SC, said at the start of the five-week inquest 'the media will have to reflect deeply' on graphic footage shown in reports. Families are hoping the coroner will make recommendations which may protect families in the future.
Young's brother, Peter Young, told the court: 'I trust you will also consider these factors when making recommendations from this inquest: Media guidelines on reporting mass casualty events. The moral injury caused by the media's monetisation of tragic events.' Hadley has been approached for comment.
The 40-year extension of the North West Shelf gas project granted by the federal environment minister, Murray Watt, this week was welcomed in some media quarters, namely those owned by Western Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes.
'COOKING WITH GAS North West Shelf a goer', declared a strap on the front page on The Nightly, the West Australian's digital newspaper. Below that it featured an arresting image of the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, portrayed as a North Korean dictator with the headline ROGUE STATE.
It was a reference to the Santos boss, Kevin Gallagher's comments comparing Victoria's investment climate to North Korea. Gallagher said Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia were 'very supportive jurisdictions' for onshore investment', while 'Victoria, North Korea, they're in a different category altogether'.
The publication also published a banner ad from Woodside Energy along the bottom of the page: 'Produce reliable energy for today. Invest in new energy for tomorrow. Challenge accepted.'
Meanwhile the West Australian's front page said 'Shelf Life', and a double page spread inside featured a large photo of a smiling Woodside chief executive, Meg O'Neill.
According to the Herald Sun, Allan told a Victorian Chamber of Commerce of Industry event that Victoria had created more jobs than other states, which was 'not bad for a place apparently run like North Korea'.
The premier told the Herald Sun [the comments from Santos] were driven by fear of competition. 'Victoria is growing, open for business, and investing in energy – including gas.'
The Australian meanwhile chimed in with fart jokes.
'Is Victoria about to pass gas project despite discomfort with LNG?, the august organ asked on the eve of the decision.
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'When it comes to gas Victoria is more likely to pass wind projects …'
Comedian Kitty Flanagan told a Women in Media gala dinner on Wednesday night how delighted she was to be invited to give the second annual oration at the black tie event. The star of ABC TV hit Fisk said she thought the gig was a good fit given who had delivered the first oration in 2024. That was until she realised it was not fellow comic Kate McLennan of Katering Show fame but Kate McClymont, a 'serious investigative journalist' from the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age.
Flanagan brought the house down, and McClymont, who was a 'prize' in the silent auction, did not appear offended by the name mix-up. The comedian inspired the audience by tracing her career trajectory from a failing standup performer to a regular spot on Ten's The Project which raised her profile and allowed her to tour her act successfully.
'My advice to young women, stick around,' she said. 'Work harder than you think you have to, and try not to get angry or disappointed when things fall over. And things fall over in this industry a lot.'
Two of Australia's most prominent newspapers came under fire during a single session at the Sydney Writers festival last week, when Michael Gawenda, former editor-in-chief of the Age, and Philippe Sands, a British barrister and author spoke on a panel about antisemitism and xenophobia.
Gawenda took aim at his former paper, saying he had not been published in the Age, the paper he had worked at for four decades, since the 7 October attacks.
The comments came as Gawenda was recounting stories of Jewish Australians working in the arts who had been refused gigs because of their political stance on Israel.
'In terms of not getting gigs, I worked for The Age for 40 years, I ended up editor-in-chief of The Age. Since October the seventh, I have not been published in the Age,' he said. 'I don't know why not, I can't tell you exactly why not. But it seems to me that it has something to do with whatever I wrote in my book about my position on Israel.'
Gawenda later told Weekly Beast that while he had discussions with the paper's editor since 7 October about writing for the Age, these discussions were not followed up. He said that at this point in his career he doesn't pitch individual articles, but writes when approached by editors and 'The Age has never asked, despite our conversations about it, and they've made it clear they don't want me.'
He said he has never been told specifically that his views on Israel were precluding him from writing for the paper, but said: 'What other reason could there be, my work isn't good enough? I can't think of another reason.'
The Age declined to comment.
It was Murdoch's The Australian newspaper which came under attack from Gawenda's fellow panellist, Sands, who said an article in the broadsheet in February was 'totally ridiculous'.
Sands, who is Jewish, has written extensively about the origins of the legal definition of genocide and crimes against humanity, most famously in his family memoir East West Street.
'When an article appears in the Australian and some of you would have seen it, which is how outrageous it is that the Sydney writers' festival has invited Sands to speak because he acted for the Palestinian Authority … It was just totally ridiculous. It was offensive. It was stupid.'
Headlined 'Sydney Writers festival invite for barrister Philippe Sands who took on Israel' the Australian framed Sands as 'a barrister who represented Palestine in a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and argued for the immediate withdrawal of Israel from the ­occupied territories'. Many of the commenters expressed their fury about Sands' invitation underneath the story.
He said he was part of a team that had been retained to argue for the right to self determination before the International Court of Justice and all of a sudden it was said 'he's anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, it's a nonsense'.
A spokesperson for The Australian strongly rejected that the story was in any way an attempt to criticise Sands and pointed out that the author, Caroline Overington, wrote columns in which she encouraged readers to see him and said he is a brilliant mind.
Additional reporting by Kate Lyons