The parents of the Bondi Junction mass murderer have admitted their son was a “monster” who hated women because he was “frustrated” at being unable to find a girlfriend.
Parents Michele and Andrew Cauchi opened up about their “troubled… beautiful boy” Joel Cauchi, 40, who they said they “loved so much” until he continued his murderous rampage.
Knife-obsessed Cauchi killed five women and one man in Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday when he ran through the shopping center hacking and stabbing shoppers.
On Monday, his parents said he was mentally ill and schizophrenic and had lived at their home in Toowoomba, southern Queensland, until he was 35.
His life was derailed when he tried to get off his antipsychotic medication because “he wanted to have a life” — but instead triggered his psychosis, his parents said.
‘How do you love a monster? Give them birth!’ said tearful father Andrew Cauchi.
Andrew Cauchi spoke to reporters outside his Toowoomba home on Monday, two days after his son Joel stabbed six people to death at Westfield Bondi Junction
A devastated Michele Cauchi opened up about her son’s long battle with mental illness
‘I loved my son. But he had a fascination with knives.
“He had five or six army commando knives. He had a problem with women, he couldn’t get a girlfriend.’
Earlier, Cauchi lashed out at the media group outside his home in an angry outburst before his wife Michele intervened to defuse the situation.
Mrs Cauchi said she was “so sorry” for what her son had done.
‘He was raised in love. “He was a sweet child and he was under the care of his doctors for about 18 years,” she said.
‘He took his medication, then he asked the doctor if he could stop taking it, and she did for several years, very carefully warning him of what might happen.
“And when he got out, it was like his eyes… it was all taken away from him and he wanted to live a life.”
“So after living at home until he was 35, he went to Brisbane.”
She added, “My heart goes out to the people our son hurt.
‘If he was in his right mind he would be absolutely devastated by what he has done.
‘But he was clearly not in his right mind. Somehow he had fallen into a psychosis and lost touch with reality.’
‘We are just ordinary people and have raised our son as best we can.’
Andrew Cauchi (left) lashed out at the media earlier on Monday before his wife (right) intervened to defuse the situation
Andrew and Michele Cauchi said they did everything they could to help their son Joel
Mrs. Cauchi revealed that her son was “the top of his class” and that “his teachers loved him.
‘He worked hard. He had a lot of friends growing up,” she recalls.
Her husband admitted that his son was clumsy.
When asked if he knew why his son targeted women, Cauchi said: “Because he wanted a girlfriend and has no social skills.
“He was crazy frustrated,” he said
Mr Cauchi said he “put myself through hell” watching footage of his son on the afternoon of the knife attacks.
“But I’m willing to do that because I love my son and I want to know what’s going on,” he said.
“You have no idea how beautiful my boy is.”
Mr. Cauchi said that when his son was growing up, “everyone said what a sweet son you have.”
But he said Cauchi’s mental health problems from his late teens and early 20s meant “you couldn’t help him.”
He added: “I did everything I could to help him. I would go to Brisbane, spend the day with them, take him to the Gold Coast, take him wherever he wanted.
“There’s nothing I can do or say that will bring it back.
‘My son, my son… I love a monster. He’s a monster to me. He was a very sick boy.
“Do you think there’s anything that could have been done differently with his mental illness that could have helped?”
Andrew Cauchi (left) revealed to reporters that his son Joel was clumsy and had no social skills
Joel Cauchi lived at home with his parents until he was 35 and moved to Brisbane five years ago
Mr Cauchi said he last saw his son through a selfie video that his son Joel happily filmed at Coogee Beach on February 5, two months before the knife attack took place.
His son had said on the video: “I just want to show you beautiful Coogee Beach,” his father revealed.
“Can you imagine this boy… so happy… in five weeks or whatever, committing this atrocity?” Mr Cauchi said.
“That’s what a mental illness is. Mental illness is terrible.”
Mr Cauchi said that if mentally ill people even “just raise a knife, they will shoot them,” and he believed this only made things worse.
“You’re encouraging the mentally ill to do something crazy so they can get shot,” he said.
‘This crime should never have happened. I don’t blame the police.
‘I took five US Army combat knives from him when I picked him up from Brisbane.
“I said, ‘Look Joe, you’re welcome to stay with me. But she’s not going to give you these knives.’
Mr Cauchi denied his son had ever threatened him, but added: “He was really angry.
“He called the police and accused me of stealing his knives.”