Westfield Bondi Junction attack: Brothel manager reveals the ‘bizarre’ application knifeman Joel Cauchi made to become a male escort

A former manager of a Bondi Junction brothel has recalled the ‘bizarre’ encounter she had with wannabe sex worker and crazed Westfield killer Joel Cauchi – and revealed her chilling theory behind what could have prompted his stabbing.

Cee Rodriguez, 39, was running the now closed brothel ‘The Flamingo Club’ on Ebley Street in Bondi Junction last August when she received a ‘bizarre’ request from a man called ‘Joel’.

He sent a photo of himself wearing a tight-fitting Manchester United football club shirt while sitting astride a chair with his arms crossed, claiming he would be ‘open to both men and women’.

“I said to my friend, ‘This guy is clearly an amateur’ because this is a job, this is a business and if you want us to take you seriously, you have to present yourself as such,” Ms Rodriguez told Daily Mail Australia .

“We’ve been complaining about it because that’s what we do. I said, ‘Look at this guy, oh my God, he’s delusional’ and my friend said, ‘Who the hell would pay for that?'”

‘I thought, what the heck, these aren’t hooligans from Green Street. Are you trying to sell sex with this photo? YYou don’t endear yourself to anyone.’

Despite her immediate response, Ms. Rodriguez sent “Joel” a polite response, telling him this was not the case accepted men into the establishment but suggested they could make a ‘book only’ arrangement if there was interest in him.

“I told him we could arrange a room rental rate, that you could use the facilities, that you would be safe, that you could have all the supplies and towels and everything if we take a booking,” she said.

‘But his application was very sloppy, very unprofessional. He would answer questions with questions.

“I said, ‘Do you mind if I ask how much experience you’ve had?’

“And he said, ‘look, I just want to know if you’re getting any female clientele.’

Ms. Rodriguez said she had never received an application like Cauchi’s before.

“Anyone who wants to work in the industry and thinks they’re going to make money catering to women, I say, ‘Listen, unless you’re going to be gay for money, you’re going to be pretty broke,'” she added.

‘If he hadn’t said ‘men’ I would have just laughed. I would have sent a laughing emoji and blocked him.

“But because he said ‘men’ and because I know the demographics and some of the clientele and their requests, I came up with the idea of ​​a booking-only arrangement.”

Despite this, Ms. Rodriguez did not have much hope in his popularity.

‘I remember saying to my friend, ‘the only people who are going to book this guy are the ones who are drugged,’ and then I referred to a client we have who is so into drugs and who is desperate and literally everyone wants to take,” she said.

“I thought that was the only kind of customer he would get, who are desperate.”

Ms Rodriguez said Cauchi’s messages were “not coherent” and she got the impression he had never actually done sex work.

“It seemed like he was trying to foray into the sex industry and not having much luck with it,” she said.

“If you’re successful at this game, you won’t have to send unkind messages to a brothel.”

Cauchi had also listed himself on several male escort websites including Australia Cracker, Empire Escorts and Escorts Australia.

In his online biography, he described himself as an “athletically handsome 39-year-old” based in Sydney who was looking for a “good time” – and offered dozens of “closed door services” too explicit to publish.

In an attempt to “let him down in a roundabout way,” Ms. Rodriguez sent him an application form and told him that if he wanted to come for an interview, he needed to bring identification.

“The application states that any drug use or threats of violence or actual physical violence or theft will be referred to New South Wales Police,” she said.

‘After I told him to fill out an application form and bring ID, he wrote back and said, ‘Don’t worry about that.’

“If he had been approached with some business sense, or just a more representative photo, I might have taken it more seriously, but he just seemed so scattered and absent.”

Ms. Rodriguez was so disturbed by the encounter that she saved his number as “Wtf” on her personal device and ran it through a database, but that raised no red flags.

She wondered if his experience – or lack thereof – in the sex industry could have been the trigger for his breakdown, which led to his murderous rampage.

“This is pure speculation, but if you initially wanted to offer services to women and realized you wouldn’t make any money doing so, you could expand this to both men and women,” she said.

‘If you have been contracted by a couple, for example a man and a woman, the feedback you receive can be debilitating.

‘It can destroy your fragile mental health.’

A visibly emaciated Cauchi entered Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon and went on the rampage with a 12-inch hunting knife, killing six people and seriously injuring a dozen, including a nine-month-old baby.

He was eventually shot dead by the police.

On Monday, the killer’s distraught father revealed his son was a misogynist who had an ‘obsession’ with knives.

“He had a problem with women, he couldn’t get a girlfriend,” his father said.

Five of Cauchi’s six victims were women.