The parents of the Bondi Junction mass murderer have admitted their son was a “monster” who hated women because he was “frustrated” at not being able to find a girlfriend.
Parents Michele and Andrew Cauchi spoke about their “worried… beautiful boy” Joel Cauchi, 40, who they said they “loved very much” until he began his murderous attack.
Knife-obsessed Cauchi killed five women and a man at Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday as he ran through the shopping center attacking and stabbing shoppers.
On Monday his parents said he had mental problems and had been diagnosed with schizophrenic and had lived at home with them until he was 35 in Toowoomba, southern Queensland.
His life was derailed when he tried to stop his antipsychotic medication because he “wanted to have a life,” but instead it 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 has spoken out about her son’s long battle with mental illness.
‘I loved my son. But he had a fascination with knives.
‘I had five or six army commando knives. He had problems with women, he couldn’t get a girlfriend.
Earlier, Cauchi lashed out at the media outside his home in an angry outburst before his wife Michele intervened to calm the situation.
Mrs. Cauchi said she was “very sorry” for what her son had done.
‘He was raised in love. “He was a lovely boy and was in the care of his doctors for about 18 years,” he said.
“He took his medication, then asked the doctor if he could reduce it, and she did for several years, very carefully warning him what could happen.”
“And when he came out, it was like his eyes had…everything had lifted up and he wanted to have a life.”
“So after living at home until he was 35, he went to Brisbane.”
He added: ‘My heart goes out to the people our son has hurt.
“If he was in his right mind, he would be absolutely devastated by what he has done.
But it is evident that he was not in his right mind. Somehow they had given her a psychosis and she had lost touch with reality.
“We are ordinary people and we raised our son the best we could.”
Andrew Cauchi (left) lashed out at the media on Monday before his wife (right) intervened to calm the situation.
Andrew and Michele Cauchi said they did everything they could to help their son Joel
Mrs. Cauchi revealed that her son had been “the best in his class” and that “his teachers loved him.”
‘Hard work. He had a lot of friends while he was growing up,” she recalled.
Her husband admitted that their son was awkward.
When asked if she knew why her son attacked women, Cauchi said, “because he wanted a girlfriend and has no social skills.”
“I was incredibly frustrated,” he said.
Cauchi said he had been “exposing himself to hell” watching images of his son on the afternoon of the knife attacks.
“But I’m prepared to do it because I love my son and I want to find out what’s wrong with him,” he said.
“You have no idea how beautiful my boy is.”
Mr Cauchi said that when his son was little “everyone said you have such a lovely son”.
But he said Cauchi’s mental health problems from his late teens and early 20s meant he “couldn’t be helped.”
He added: “I did everything in my power 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 is nothing I can do or say that will get him back.
‘My son, my son… I am loving a monster. He is a monster to me. He was a very sick child.
‘Do you think something 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 his parents’ home until he was 35 and moved to Brisbane five years ago.
Cauchi said he had last seen his son through a selfie video his son Joel filmed looking happy on Coogee Beach on February 5, two months before the knife attacks.
His son had said in the video: “I just want to show you the beautiful Coogee beach,” his father revealed.
“Can you imagine this child… so happy… in five weeks or whatever he will be committing this atrocity?” Mr. Cauchi said.
‘That’s what mental illness is. Mental illness is horrendous.
Cauchi said that if the mentally ill “just pick up a knife, they’ll be shot dead” and he believes that only makes things worse.
“You’re encouraging the mentally ill to do something crazy so they’ll 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 brought him from Brisbane.
“I said, ‘Look Joe, you can stay at my house. But you’re not going to give him these knives.”
Cauchi denied that his son had ever threatened him, but added: “He was really angry.”
“He called the police and accused me of stealing his knives.”