EXCLUSIVE
The police officer who saved lives by defeating an Islamist terrorist almost 10 years ago still cannot be identified for legal reasons and could go to prison if he speaks out about what happened.
On 15 and 16 December 2014, Man Horon Monis took 18 people hostage at the Lindt Café on Martin Place in Sydney during a 16-hour standoff with police.
Monis was armed with a shotgun, which he used to kill the cafe’s manager, Tori Johnson, and said he had a bomb in his backpack.
The man who can only be referred to as Officer A, was part of the Tactical Operations Unit (TOU) Alpha team and shot Monis dead, ending the siege in the early hours of the morning.
Since then, his name has been suppressed without ever being given a clear reason, and this is greatly affecting his life and worsening his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The police officer who saved lives by defeating an Islamist terrorist almost 10 years ago still cannot be identified for legal reasons and desperately wants his name back. A heavily armed police officer appears on the scene on December 15, 2014.
A hostage is shown running towards a police officer outside the Lindt Café in Sydney on December 15, 2014.
“It was started during the coroner’s inquest,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Actually, it was initially proposed by my legal team… a standard to stop retaliatory attacks.
“Since then we have made numerous requests to the coroner (Teresa O’Sullivan) who has told us there is nothing she can do.”
His legal team has told him they believe this is not correct and that the coroner has the power to take action.
Under the gag order, Officer A could face 28 days in jail for each time he violates the ban plus an additional $2,200 fine for each offense.
“My opinion is that (police) don’t want this to come up again,” he said. “They know they made a mistake that day and they just want to silence me.”
The longer his name suppression went on, the more it affected him, and he had to write his book as Officer A, with his name crossed out everywhere.
It also prevents him from being able to help others, especially since he had to leave the police force due to post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I want to talk to people with similar issues to mine… emergency services personnel and ex-military personnel and anyone with post-traumatic stress disorder,” he said.
‘And I think my story and the way I approach PTSD and refuse to let it beat me, I think I could be helping a substantial number of people.
“So not only does it affect me personally, but I think I could do a lot of good out there, and the way things are right now, I’m not allowed to do that.”
Ironically, Officer A had his mandatory routine appointment with a psychologist on the morning of December 15, 2014.
When he returned to the office, two of his TOU colleagues were running out.
‘There is anti-terror work at Martin Place. Grab your gear, we’re leaving now,’ the sergeant shouted.
‘So, it finally happened?’ Officer A called again, as he recounted in his book. Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! The Lindt Coffee Siege.
“We all knew it was just a matter of time, especially since the 9/11 attacks on the United States,” he wrote.
Hours later, before the operation ended the siege, Officer A said he “was resigned to the idea that I would never see my wife and daughter again.”
‘I was never going to hold the unborn baby that (my wife) was carrying, much less see the rest of my family and my good friends again.
“I said goodbye via text messages as best I could, without revealing our exact situation.”
He and his companions survived, Monis did not, and lives were saved.
But a decade later, and despite the coronial inquest into the siege being closed, Officer A’s name remains permanently suppressed.
Louisa Hope, one of the survivors who has befriended him, set up an online petition to help lobby the New South Wales government to allow him to get his name back.
On December 15 and 16, 2014, Man Horon Monis (pictured) took 18 hostages at the Lindt Café on Martin Place in Sydney during a 16-hour standoff with police.
Hostages are shown holding a black flag with Islamic writing at the Lindt Café in December 2014.
The ban on linking your real name with what happened at the Lindt Café 10 years ago makes it almost impossible to make new friends, something that is now vitally important.
‘I am separated and going through a divorce, which is due to PTSD. Unfortunately, it is a well-known story,” he said.
‘Post-traumatic stress disorder has affected my life and my fight against it, affecting me and my three daughters. Of course it has taken its toll on me.
Officer A has a message for the Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns. ‘First of all, why do you keep ignoring my request?
And secondly, this order that is in place through the coroner, it seems like that order exists forever.
‘So, for me, that needs to be looked at from a legal point of view. How can such an order be enforced forever?
“And I would like him to address the issue.”
Anything to do with the law is very expensive, as Officer A knows well.
He added: “I think that’s what they’re thinking, that if I have to open a whole new investigation, it would cost tens and tens of thousands of dollars…
“I think that’s probably what they’re thinking, that I obviously can’t afford to finance that, so I’ll just walk away.”
He wants to make it clear that his purpose is not to try to attack the New South Wales police, he just wants to get his life back.
“The way I wrote the book, I didn’t really attack the police hierarchy at all,” he said. ‘I think that has already been done and is in the public eye.
‘And I think I was very fair in the way I wrote the book, even acknowledging some of his decisions.
‘So the goal would never be to go out and attack the police hierarchy and the decisions made that day. Definitely not.’
In his findings at the Coronial Inquiry, the then New South Wales state coroner, Michael Barnes, wrote: ‘Against what standard is a man who is required to contemplate death to save strangers judged?
“Who would dare say they could have done it better?”
All Officer A wants now is the right to use his name again.
People run with their hands up from the Lindt Café on December 16, 2014.
Paramedics are shown working at the end of the siege at the Lindt Café on December 16, 2014.
Flowers are displayed outside the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place, Sydney, on December 23, 2014.
A spokesperson for the Attorney-General of New South Wales, Michael Daley, told Daily Mail Australia that ‘The Coroner’s Court Act 2009 provides the legal framework for the making of non-publication orders by the Coroner’s Court.
«Generally, non-publication orders are the responsibility of the parties and the competent court. Anyone wishing to have a non-publication order varied or revoked should seek independent legal advice to consider the specific circumstances of their case.
“The Attorney General cannot offer legal advice in relation to specific cases,” they said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns, State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan and NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb were also contacted for this story, but none of them responded.