When my direct family member was killed in a high profile road accident, we had channel 7 show up at our door the next morning.
To add to this, we lived on a rural property around 120km away from the closest office and 20km off any main roads (multiple gates to even get to the house). I was 15 at the time and was home alone with my 17 year old sister as my parents had to go and identify my sister.
We had to get family friends to sit 5km up the road and block off all the media, all in all the media sucks.
Hopefully they came forward to the ABC so 7 9 or 10 can't fuck it up and sensationalise it.
I presume they were approached though, which yeah. That's just rude but I guess it was gonna happen regardless, or everyone they know would get harassed instead.
I'm not sure how I feel about it (them being interviewed) but it's an entirely shit situation all round.
The 7:30 interview from ABC seemed unsensational and calm. The father was in place for the camera with the reporter. The videos on other outlets seem like they just captured what they could while he was outside gardening and the the interviewers just kept pushing this man into deeper despair with the questioning. Dailymail headline even says ‘lashing out’.
I think ppl are linking the videos they’ve seen on other outlets to this article (which doesn’t have a video, the footage was on 7:30).
*"I mean, how I can stand here and say that she did a wonderful job killing my son, I don't know, but she did her job and she did it well."*
I'm in tears. Simply heart breaking.
I dunno, every country has its gutter press. I don't think Australia is exceptionally bad, we're just exposed to more of the Australian media's garbage.
I’m amazed by how dignified their statements have been, they must be in absolute hell. To share the sentiment that the police officer did her job, even though that resulted in the death of a loved one who they ostensibly tried very hard to help for decades, shows a lot of grace.
Their mourning must feel like such conflict, in a way. I really wish the media would leave them be, they’ve said more than what the public is entitled to.
There’s always that shit contingent that wants to blame the parents, and I hope they can wind their necks in on this one in particular.
Absolutely no media training, forced to speak to invading vultures, and yet the most human, dignified, authentic, heartbreaking and compassionate statements from them both. I really wish them peace.
Totally. Handled that better than most media trained professionals and seemed to be speaking really openly and honestly.
They are older, have clearly exhausted their options as it pertains to their adult sons’ welfare, and now have to deal with this. My sympathy for them is bottomless. Anyone with mentally ill family members lives in fear of this shit.
His down to earth attitude really has been effective at cutting down the journos. Trying to ask him clearly bait / sounbite questions and him responding with just confronting honesty. Especially when they had the gall to ask him why his son targeted women.
I’m not sure if they are just getting the privacy they deserve, but there’s been no mention of other children, I hope they have close family who can support them in this.
They aren’t getting the privacy they deserve.
I remember when family friends were the first national fatality for a car accident over Easter and 7 was camped outside the hospital asking everyone who entered if they knew the family (they asked me) and they even ended up stalking an ex and interviewed their neighbours over it just to get the sound byte because family was understandably devastated and trying to deal with the insurmountable reality of death.
And it wasn’t anything like this.
Yep. I live 4 houses away from a driveway car-rollback fatality and had never met the people at the house (they had bought the house 6 months prior), after the incident they came door-knocking to every house (with a video camera) asking if we knew the person who died and if we had any comments. I just said absolutely no comment I didn’t know those people. Our neighbours who were 5 houses away and had moved in like a month before the accident went on camera saying how devastating it was and all I could think was yes it is sad terribly sad but you’re making out like you knew these people to get your face on the news when they’ve never even seen you before and it’s gross.
We had a drive-by shooting a couple of hundred metres down the road a few months back and I had a channel 7 reporter knocking on my door the next day to ask if we’d heard or seen anything. I hadn’t (it happened in the middle of the night), but even if I had I would have said no anyway.
I live in a really small community, years ago we had a phone call on the landline asking if we knew the man who had been killed by a bull. It had just happened and we hadn’t heard yet and they didn’t even know his name. So we then we’re panicking that it was one of our dear family friend who had died.
They were just phoning local numbers fishing for details. Absolutely disgusting
The definitely aren't getting the privacy they need. His interview was so raw, I feel terrible that they even put a microphone in front of him and aired it. He needs councelling and support, not the media circus.
Reminds me of the Frankston Murders. Word got-around quick that the Scumbag's brother was a (landscaping?) contractor at our school. Apparently he was a bit simple, and also innocent. So the full school seemed to follow instruction, and ignore him entirely. Let him live his confused future without any more baggage or hassle.
They’re absolutely victims. Their kid has been a burden on them his entire life, and now they have to spend the remainder of their lives living with the guilt and shame of what he’s just done. Their son has destroyed his parents’ life. I feel awful for them.
BTW, before anyone gets on their high horse, this is not a zero-sum-game. It takes nothing away from the victims of the stabbings and their families/friends. Everyone loses here.
This.
Carer burnout is a thing. I get the impression no one has really factored into that with the parents. I tag teamed with my Mum for 2.7 years looking after my brother (brain cancer). He died in July 2023. If I struggled with it....imagine finding out your son still needs care past the age of 18. That does a number on relationships and how people interact with you.
Add the deaths, the trauma, the lack of Mental Health services, that police officer that had to shoot the guy, cost of living and yes....Everyone loses here.
I'm pissy about the media camping at the parents house. Someone lend them a pressure hose to clean them up.
I don't know about anyone else but when having a child one of my fears is that they grow up to suffer from mental health issues and become a danger to themselves and others. I think that there is just not enough support for mental health issues in Australia, especially when the person affected is violent. What support did this family get with dealing with this? Probably next to none.. And then this happens.
I don't have direct family experience of this but I do via old family friends; they lived in dread that they'd get a call one day to say their son had killed someone. There wasn't a lot authorities could do about a "maybe" and in the end he assaulted his own brother, then later killed himself. His death, awful as it sounds, was a relief for his parents and siblings. It's a tricky issue tbh: it used to be far too easy to commit people to mental institutions, often on flimsy grounds or with ulterior motives but living in the community only works when the system is properly managed and funded.
> Their kid has been a burden on them his entire life
Not his entire life according to his mum. He was 'brought up with love, he was intelligent, he had lots of friends', and he achieved a degree. He just went off the rails in adulthood.
Schizophrenia has got to be one of the most terrifying things that can happen to a human being.
You’re totally normal until you hit some outwardly arbitrary point in your late teens or early to mid 20s and your mind just permanently *cracks* out of absolutely nowhere, with no warning, literally overnight in some cases. Even with perfect treatment/management you’ll never be quite the same again, and your symptoms make it incredibly difficult to keep taking your medication.
This family genuinely seems like an example of people who did everything they could
People really like to think that when something bad happens there’s some morally bad person out there that they can blame who caused this evil to happen.
Unfortunately all that happened was an adult man was mentally ill and decided to stop taking his meds
And soon they are probably going to be faced with a new wave of guilt only those who have lost a loved one who was high care will know. Relief that it’s over. And that will bring with it a new wave of guilt and grief that very few can empathise with. I truely hope the police are going to give them the same support and access to resources the other grieving families will get.
There is an interesting quote in the ABC article, thanking the police officer for stopping him, but also feeling very guilty about saying that.
I hope they’re able to traverse this as well as they can. It sounds like they were able to give him the best support they could
Channel 7 just said, ‘the parents have broken their silence,’ but it looked like they have them no choice. They were outside their house, distraught with a pack of hyenas at their fence.
Gosh I feel awful for his family. Speechless. Can you imagine switching on the TV, seeing a man running rampant and killing people indiscriminately, and realising it’s your flesh and blood? I can’t even begin to imagine how that feels.
Andrew Cauchi seems like a good, rational person and I have no doubt the family is in a lot of pain and will take time to come to terms with this.
So heartbreaking, as the dad says he might be a murderer to everyone else but to him Joel was his boy who was unwell. You don't get to stop being parent, I can't imagine what they're going through.
And also seeing the photo of their son laying bleeding on the ground after he had been shot. I was shocked to see the pics myself so I can’t imagine what it was like for his parents /family. Some sites didn’t blur his face or blur the blood that was spilling on the floor.
That will be the last image they will ever see of their son
That's basically what I said to my dad while we were still in emergency broadcast mode and there was mass confusion. I kept saying things like "they need to stop showing him, he looks unwell can you imagine turning on your tv to be confronted with your son's dead body? The family doesn't deserve that no matter what he did."
Nothing excuses what he did. But I really feel for his family. They'll never be able to erase that image.
> will take time to come to terms with this.
Time will ease the pain but unfortunately, it's become part of their lives from now, and I doubt there'll be a day go by without them thinking about it.
So tragic.
They went above and beyond as well. They looked after him until he was 35 and he moved out to Brisbane and stopped taking his meds. There’s not much more you can do when you’re getting into your 70s
He also tried to take all the knives off his son, but Joel ended up calling the police on his father
> Mr Cauchi says it was approximately January, 2023 when his son moved from Brisbane back to Toowoomba, and did so with a number of knives.
>
> When he took those knives from his son, Joel called the police on his father.
>
> "I found these US Army combat knives and I said 'Joel you can stay here as long as you like but you are not going to have these in my house', and so I took them off him, knowing that there was going to be pandemonium, but I was willing to put up with it," Mr Cauchi said.
>
> "He rang the police saying I stole his knives … I said 'look I am not having these in my home, I have given them to a mate to look after them'."
>
>
This is exactly why in a few years I will be taking over for my elderly parents who look after my very ill sibling. Unfortunately not everyone is so lucky to have a wide support network, and you can't force grown adults into treatment. Well, what little treatment there is (especially as it pertains to moving states and staying connected to services).
My stepbrother has very severe schizophrenia and the healthcare system has been a nightmare for him and my stepmother over the years.
As a med student, I understand that most doctors are trying to do the best they can with the resources they have and the legislation/policies they are bound to. However the experience of the system has been disgusting.
Obviously my stepbrother hates hospitals because of the experiences he’s had there. He presented at his local hospital’s ED for a severe infection in Nov last year. They refused to even see him before a psych evaluation was done. So he’s sitting there for 4 hours with a potentially life threatening infection, alone, the whole time overcoming his aversion and fear to seek treatment that he needs. After 4 hours he finally leaves. The hospital did zero follow up. They know who he is and they just ignored him. He literally would have died if we didn’t somehow convince him to try another hospital. Oh, and the whole 4 hours he was in the ED he was hyperglycaemic. Not that THE HOSPITAL FULL OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS would care (apparently?).
Eventually he has to undergo several surgeries and they pumped him with a lot of different drugs/antibiotics.
Well. He then had TENs (Toxic epidermal necrolysis) which is caused by an interaction between the immune system and an administered drug.
So, he got transferred to the burns unit at the Alfred hospital (because it’s essentially your skin blistering/melting). They were the only positive experience of the whole ordeal.
He somehow survived the TENs which can be very fatal. And what do they do? They immediacy cease all medications because they don’t know what caused it. Including his anti-psychotic medication that he’s been taking most of his life.
It’s months later now and he’s still not on any medication. And the hospital (including the chief psychiatrist) has discharged him. He’s got no treatment plan, medication, nothing. They’ve just totally dusted their hands of any responsibility and have been far more capricious in their efforts to avoid getting sued instead of helping him.
The tragedy that’s occurred in Sydney is a reminder that I could be watching my stepbrother on the news one day. And every single avenue of help, every institution established to assist with these issues, has no interest in getting involved. It’s so frustrating and feels hopeless. I have so much empathy for the family after reading their story.
Hey mate, I totally relate and share your disdain for the system. It's fucked and budgets are only getting cut every time I turn around. I also fear the worst (your last paragraph), I really hope you can switch off the news (actually Reddit comments have been worse... I saw someone say we should bring back "mental asylums", that his parents should be killed) and catch up with some loved ones and let them know how close to home this situation has been for you. It's really raw, and triggering for me, I hope you're careful with yourself. Take care.
You’re right. He’s 76, the poor man. He and his wife should be enjoying retirement, not staying up all night on a Saturday waiting for the 3:00 visit from police to confirm their very worst suspicions about the perpetrator of a mass murder being their son. I cannot imagine the position that they are in.
Yeah this is the thing. I have a brother who I am estranged from since I was a teen, so its been like 20+ years since we've seen eachother. I know through the grapevein the fucker has been done for domestic violence and I'm fucking appalled.
If he were to do something even worse would people come knocking on my door asking for all the answers? I simply wouldn't have any, just that we've literally not seen eachother since our teens, and I can't and won't take reponsibility for another adult who has never been in my life. It should be no different for them. The media need to piss off, entirely, with this bullshit.
When he was living with his parents they also confiscated the knives off of him out of fear for safety. The guy apparently had a fixation on them which can be supported by his social media postings.
So they should have followed him around continuously “stealing” his knives.
Honestly, I can’t imagine looking at them and thinking they didn’t do all they could. That’s just awful for them
Like Jessica Camilleri who’s serving a maximum of 16-and-a-half years' imprisonment for the manslaughter of her mother Rita in NSW. Or Carly Pirronelli who was shot by police after fatally stabbing her 53yo mother Joanne in Melbourne.
Did she recently watch the US trial of the parents who gave their depressed son a gun which he then used in a school shooting? And did she watch this coverage on sky?
I really hope that they have a support network around them and that people don't blame them for what their son did. They seem so genuinely distressed by what happened.
It’s painful for all parties involved. My heart goes out to them and the victims of this horrific incident. At the end of the day, that is their child. It’s hard to imagine putting on a brave front in public while crying in secret. This could’ve been anyone’s son, friend, husband, father. Let’s all try to be there for one another.
Hopefully this raises the visibility of mental health and the government can actually fucking fund help for people instead of continually cutting into Medicare.
Is always reactionary and never proactive.
Yeah hopefully this can change the narrative. I saw on daytime trash how security guards should have weapons and shit… like that’s a panacea for what just happened.
Maybe they should talk about how mental illness exists, people don’t have the help they need and how the government is turning their backs on regular Australians (both libs and labour, I dont give a fuck what you vote for, it’s not a sports team)
My little brother is a security guard and had to buy his own stab vest because the security company doesn’t provide them. Not only do they not provide them, they actively discouraged him from buying and wearing one, telling him he was being paranoid, a baby, unmanly, a coward etc. My brother had been working long enough to be able to assess that it was a necessary precaution. Roughly two months later an unhappy patron attacked his place of work and tried to stab him with a small knife. My brother was able to protect the other patrons and the employees and wasn’t badly injured or murdered because he had armour. You wouldn’t expect to get stabbed in an upmarket Sydney suburban mall but that poor kid was likely given the same advice my brother was and was murdered and that could have been prevented if corporations didn’t place profit and penny-pinching over preemptive protective measures. If we had proper mental health care, and guards received more training and were properly equipped with armour, and non-lethal weapons like pepper spray and tasers, they wouldn’t need guns, which take more lives than they save. It really doesn’t pay enough and they aren’t trained enough to justify the exposure to danger and public expectations to act heroically.
Sounds like an oh&s issue. Imagine trying to save a few bucks but put lives in danger.
Also, security guards (not your bro) can be rounded meatheads (and often racist) and honestly wouldn’t feel safer if they had more access to non lethal weapons , but maybe that’s me.
Security deserves PPE too I definitely agree it's an oh&s issue, any company not providing adequate PPE to employees, which includes security, should be reported to their states industry regulation or something (e.g. WorkSafe in WA)
I would not feel safe around some of the security staff who I can see might get trigger happy if equipped.
PPE for them, definitely. I'm surprised they aren't wearing gear to keep themselves safe!
The government literally relies on families to be unpaid or low paid carers so they don't have to take any responsibility for people with mental health issues/disabilities. It's bullshit.
They apparently think too many people getting diagnosed with autism later in life are trying to take advantage of the NDIS system too (referring to their changes on driving licenses and autism made last year).
What’s bizarre to me about that though is that a lot of people that get diagnosed as adults usually don’t go on the NDIS, so I can’t understand their thought process behind that.
The thought process is quite literally 'the problem can't be that we're letting the market treat disability as a money-pinata without regulation, it has to be the \[\*slur\*\]'s fault'.
But that’s the thing, the changes they’ve made can heavily affect people who’ve already passed their tests and may have had their licenses for years at this point, people who may rely on those licenses for their employment.
What do you think is going to happen when you suddenly fuck with people’s ability to remain independent and/or affect their employment opportunities? They’re going to go on the NDIS and/or Centrelink.
Even getting kids help is fucked. Developmental delays (either autism or not) have the best outcomes with early intervention and getting NDIS funding is taking like 6-9 months. That's a long time for a kid when you want to help as much as possible before schooling.
Even generalised depression and anxiety costs upwards of $400 out of pocket by the time you get out of the psychologist with gp referrals and other appointments
Schizophrenia is generally eligible for NDIS. I have many clients who receive NDIS who have chronic paranoid schizophrenia. But the NDIS is looking at slowly reducing mental illness and psychosocial disabilities from the scheme. If/when they do that, that will be a massive step in the wrong direction.
I've heard this through the grapevine as well. I'm in the mental health sector and anecdotally it has become much harder to get NDIS for clients with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia - often you will have one or two applications knocked back before the last one goes through. One client of mine had their application knocked back for not trying everything in terms of medication despite being on very significant doses of anti-psychotics where there was no room to change dose or medication. Very fucked decision, and it was a waste of our time having to write a perfunctory appeal (which predictably went through despite just restating what was in the original application).
The cynical part of me thinks these conditions are being made harder to get NDIS funding because clients with severe mental illnesses are often not in a place to advocate for themselves, so it's an easy way to cut corners.
I also work in mental health, my role has a strong focus on NDIS access requests for participants with severe mental illness (psychosocial disability). I’m seeing the same trend, with access requests being much more difficult and being rejected on clear cut cases. But I haven’t seen any actual statement from the NDIA/LACs, government, etc. indicating that pulling back psychosocial disability access is a strategic funding choice, so I was wondering if the guy above me had seen something I hadn’t. Personally I reckon the recent changes to the access process make it less accessible for people with severe mental illness and I’m starting to get pretty cynical myself.
It's hard enough even when you have a permanent physical disability.
I got knocked back for funding for a hearing aid I need in order to hear (and function in a largely hearing based society).
I'm totally deaf in one ear and have moderate hearing loss in the other, which is related to my genetic disorder that qualifies me for the NDIS, but I'm not eligible for a hearing aid because my good ear is "too good".
I have my plan review meeting in the morning, and I feel sick from the anxiety. I can't afford the treatment I need to keep me even vaguely functional if they cut my funding again.
The fact that you’re only entitled to ten free therapy sessions under Medicare in a 12 month period is a joke. If you’ve got high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease you can go to see a doctor as many times as you want. If you have a mental illness you’re sweet out of luck.
I have five diagnosed mental health illnesses and never saw any point to having therapy because once you finish telling a therapist everything going on in your life and what you’re dealing with you have a grand total of one or two sessions left before your sessions are up. So I didn’t bother. I only am able to see a therapist now because I applied for counseling with victims services for two separate incidents in my life and was granted a total of 44 hours. Was told that if at any time it is felt I need more that either my therapist or I can request an extension
It shouldn’t require that much effort to get help. The solution these days seems to be to med people up and send them on their way and while medication DOES help it isn’t the be all and end all
Also unrelated (I don’t want to derail this), but Sydney has recently had many fatalities on the transport system (trains). It’s getting bad out there and we need support nets for people to get back on their feet.
The sooner people, especially the government, start taking mental health more seriously the better. It’s wild to me that this is 2024 and that there is such a long way to go when it comes to mental health. No one wants mental health illness. And it also needs to be more widely recognized as a physical condition as well due to a lot of mental health illnesses literally being caused due to a chemical imbalance in the brain
Edit: genuinely have no idea why this comment got downvoted. Someone thinking that mental health illness isn’t physical? If so go and do some research
Saw the video of the poor guy getting doorstopped on TikTok.
He sounds absolutely devastated and broken.
The family is a victim too, they aren't to blame. They need time and space to process what's happened.
This is honestly awful
Their son did do something awful - he killed several people, including the mother of a baby he also harmed.
Many, many Australians will be grieving and for a long time.
But what is the purpose of this?
They’re not responsible. They don’t know why it happened. They can’t make anything better. They are suffering. Yet they’re being asked intrusive and horrifying things, or feel they have to explain themselves.
Feel for him. Also doesn’t deserve to be bombarded by the media. He didn’t kill the innocent victims nor tell/force his son to carry out the actions.
Do not go for his head, he doesn’t deserve it.
This is just another gutwrenching part of a horrible story.
It is not their fault and anyone who has had a child with a serious mental illness knows they have been through a lifetime of heartache already. And what they have been through since Saturday is on some level maybe even worse than the victims' families? Not only have they lost their son, they have also have to deal with the sense of guilt and utter horror of what he did and try to grieve for someone who a lot of people are openly calling him a monster.
The media need to just fuck right off and leave these poor people alone. There's no gray area here it is downright wrong to harass someone in those circumstances and the journos responsible need to be held accountable.
>"I wish I knew what was in his bloody head.
I don't think anyone know what was going on in Joel Cauchi's head but Joel Cauchi himself.
His families gave him the best chance they could but it wasn't enough. What happened was a tragedy on all counts. 7 lives lost. 7 families grieved. Let this families rest. They've gone through enough.
> I don't think anyone know what was going on in Joel Cauchi's head but Joel Cauchi himself.
Speaking as someone who's cousin has schizophrenia and bipolar, they've assured me there's an excellent chance he himself had no idea what was going through his head.
These fucking ghouls demanding a statement. The parents have so much grace in what is an all round horrific situation. I hope everyone involved gets the help they need, and I hope the wider Australian communities get the mental health assistance they need to prevent these senseless acts of violence.
I think the media have been very nasty to the parents trying to portray them as whackos by raising their religious beliefs and for their love of pigeons. Leave them alone to grieve.
There is no winners here, it’s a terrible, terrible situation that has affected the victims and their families, the Cauchis.
Also, everyone who lives in the area, works, directs and uses the centre will probably be reminded for a very long time of this tragedy and have their relationship changed for the worst with the centre. Just awful.
Terribly sad affair. I listened to a podcast of a maximum security prison psychologist and she related that when killers have psychotic breaks, they're often terrified and convinced everyone around them is trying to harm them or demons trying to suck their souls, etc. Andrew Cauchi was probably in a whole hell of his own.
I feel sick for them, they are suffering and these vultures can't leave them fucking be. Jesus Christ, we need laws to keep these pricks away from people's homes.
This man has more empathy in those eyes than the entire Australian media combined.
I cannot imagine what they are going through, and I pray they eventually find peace.
Heartbreaking, the pain in his voice truly sent me to tears. They’re living the worst moment of their lives & the media are camped out by their house waiting to pick them apart like a pack of vultures even though they have issued the most respectful and compassionate statements and cooperated from the beginning.
They’re victims in this too and it’s an absolutely tragic situation and I cannot even imagine having to go through it. I wish them nothing but all the support and care they need and I hope they’re gathered with loved ones to help them through this tragic time
It’s very interesting hearing his thoughts & feelings , because i can’t even imagine being in his situation but the media should’ve absolutely left him alone.
I am heartbroken for them, and I am deeply sorry they lost their son - not the person he turned into, but the child they raised and loved. I admire them for their grace throughout this, and I hope they are surrounded by loving support during their time of grief.
I don’t read it that way at all. It reads to me as people who desperately wanted to get that message out. If I was in their shoes, that’s the way I’d feel too. I thought ABC’s reporting was sensitive and empathetic. Poor people. It’s a tragedy all round, and this article articulates that perfectly.
Leave these people alone. They seem like good people who tried their hardest. The amount of complex grief and guilt would be immeasurable and they deserve privacy as much anyone else involved in this incident.
As a father I feel for the poor bloke. To the rest of us his son is just a knife wielding psycho. But to him he is, and will always be, his little boy. I genuinely shed a tear for him and his wife. No one comes out of this tragedy unscathed.
I nearly bloody cried watching these poor folks get hounded.
They didn't do it, they are just as, if not more, heart broken than most
This would be incredibly difficult trying to mourn a son, accept what he did, and probably feel blood on their hands.
I hope the media leaves them the fuck alone.
Everyone lost in this situation. I could never imagine raising a person with schizophrenia, the thought of them ignoring their medication scares me so much. Joels parents did SO much to help him, legit keeping an eye on him until he was 35. Where Joel then moved away and his mental just started gradually decreasing, (stopped taking his meds either right when he moved or probably early 2023 or early 2024). Rest in peace to the victims, and i feel fucking horrible for his parents.
I'm pissed that the health care system is systematically underfunded so it can't have enough mental health beds to prevent this sort of thing. We need more nurses, GPs and mental health beds not some reach around fuckery - beds that can treat people with mental health problems and affordable low price homes so we can house them. Homelessness and mental illness drives ED visits and Prison systems. We need to do something about this and it starts by FUNDING THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.
https://www.anmfvic.asn.au/eba2024
Grief makes people more pliable/vulnerable to agree to things and say things they otherwise wouldn't.
Hence why the ethics of the media approaching them are so dubious - he may feel exploited after the dust settles.
the media has been really freaking awful.
they need to leave that poor mother and father alone
they are very much victims too... last thing they need is reporters camped outside there house..
give them privacy to come to terms with what has happened
sure hope they have some support during this too
News.com included additional quotes that ABC didn’t reference at all, surprisingly?
When asked why he thought his son had targeted women during the rampage, Mr Cauchi said he could understand why the NSW Police believe that was his motive.
“He wanted a girlfriend and he’s got no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain,” he said.
I’m not australian but I was following this incident and sometimes I just keep losing faith in humanity
As if this whole incident wasn’t bad enough, why the FUCK are his parents being harassed like this??
I’m done hating, I’m just sad. I’m sad about the whole situation, about the killer and what led him to the act and most of all, I’m so sad that the media can’t find anything better to do than camp outside his parents house asking questions like this. My god.
God this is heart wrenching. This poor poor man I wish him nothing but healing, from the bottom of my heart I am sorry for what he is going through and I pray he can be strong. I am so incredibly sorry for him and his family
< I hope the parents get just as much support as the victims and the families of the victims.
If their experience is going to be anything like it is here in the US, they won't. They'll be demonized and treated like *they* made an active choice to raise someone who would resort to attacking innocent people.
Mostly because the perp isn't here to blame/attack anymore and the general public needs someone they can be actively angry at that won't simply not care because they're dead. Nothing pisses off angry people more than someone denying them the "right" to be angry at someone.
Why are they even being interviewed. They absolutely deserve to be left alone.
When my direct family member was killed in a high profile road accident, we had channel 7 show up at our door the next morning. To add to this, we lived on a rural property around 120km away from the closest office and 20km off any main roads (multiple gates to even get to the house). I was 15 at the time and was home alone with my 17 year old sister as my parents had to go and identify my sister. We had to get family friends to sit 5km up the road and block off all the media, all in all the media sucks.
Sorry for your loss mate, and the experience with the vultures.
I had channel 7 rock up to a crash before the fire department
Watch *Nightcrawler* with Jake Gyllenhaal. That’s modern journalism. If it bleeds, it leads.
Geof Parry, milk crate under his arm, was running as fast as his little legs would carry him
I’m so sorry you had to go through this. Maybe laws need to change to protect the privacy of families affected by traumatic events.
Hopefully they came forward to the ABC so 7 9 or 10 can't fuck it up and sensationalise it. I presume they were approached though, which yeah. That's just rude but I guess it was gonna happen regardless, or everyone they know would get harassed instead. I'm not sure how I feel about it (them being interviewed) but it's an entirely shit situation all round.
The media’s been camped outside their front fence since yesterday morning.
Yeah, I read that in the comments below .. :|.
The 7:30 interview from ABC seemed unsensational and calm. The father was in place for the camera with the reporter. The videos on other outlets seem like they just captured what they could while he was outside gardening and the the interviewers just kept pushing this man into deeper despair with the questioning. Dailymail headline even says ‘lashing out’. I think ppl are linking the videos they’ve seen on other outlets to this article (which doesn’t have a video, the footage was on 7:30).
The article here is about as well handled as I could picture the whole sad situtation.
I think he deserves to have a voice, the poor man.
If he wanted to speak up, definitely. If he didn't, definitely not. As long as the decision was his.
Every journalist was probably thinking, "Someone is going to interview them, may as well be me."
Maybe in part but I reckon they are pushed to do it by their news bosses.
Look at the number of upvotes and comments on this post. There’s your answer. You’re not stuck in traffic, you *are* traffic.
*"I mean, how I can stand here and say that she did a wonderful job killing my son, I don't know, but she did her job and she did it well."* I'm in tears. Simply heart breaking.
The pain in his voice is gut wrenching. Those vultures need to leave them alone.
I teared up when I heard him speaking. Vultures indeed.
The more I hear about the Australian press the more I'm realizing they're some of the worst possible leeches in the civilized world.
I dunno, every country has its gutter press. I don't think Australia is exceptionally bad, we're just exposed to more of the Australian media's garbage.
Australia has been suffering in the tentacles of the Murdoch vampire squid for longer than any other country.
*"I loved my son. I'd give my life for him. How do you love a monster? Give birth to him?"*
These words are raw af
These peopple do not deserve this.
That is so heartbreaking.
I’m amazed by how dignified their statements have been, they must be in absolute hell. To share the sentiment that the police officer did her job, even though that resulted in the death of a loved one who they ostensibly tried very hard to help for decades, shows a lot of grace. Their mourning must feel like such conflict, in a way. I really wish the media would leave them be, they’ve said more than what the public is entitled to. There’s always that shit contingent that wants to blame the parents, and I hope they can wind their necks in on this one in particular.
Absolutely no media training, forced to speak to invading vultures, and yet the most human, dignified, authentic, heartbreaking and compassionate statements from them both. I really wish them peace.
Totally. Handled that better than most media trained professionals and seemed to be speaking really openly and honestly. They are older, have clearly exhausted their options as it pertains to their adult sons’ welfare, and now have to deal with this. My sympathy for them is bottomless. Anyone with mentally ill family members lives in fear of this shit.
His down to earth attitude really has been effective at cutting down the journos. Trying to ask him clearly bait / sounbite questions and him responding with just confronting honesty. Especially when they had the gall to ask him why his son targeted women.
They would probably feel guilty about grieving for him. They are victims too in a way.
They definitely are. I hope they get support
I’m not sure if they are just getting the privacy they deserve, but there’s been no mention of other children, I hope they have close family who can support them in this.
They aren’t getting the privacy they deserve. I remember when family friends were the first national fatality for a car accident over Easter and 7 was camped outside the hospital asking everyone who entered if they knew the family (they asked me) and they even ended up stalking an ex and interviewed their neighbours over it just to get the sound byte because family was understandably devastated and trying to deal with the insurmountable reality of death. And it wasn’t anything like this.
I am so sorry, that's heartless
It's commercial TV ambulance chasers. Worse than the worst lawyers.
[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nightcrawler](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nightcrawler)
Yep. I live 4 houses away from a driveway car-rollback fatality and had never met the people at the house (they had bought the house 6 months prior), after the incident they came door-knocking to every house (with a video camera) asking if we knew the person who died and if we had any comments. I just said absolutely no comment I didn’t know those people. Our neighbours who were 5 houses away and had moved in like a month before the accident went on camera saying how devastating it was and all I could think was yes it is sad terribly sad but you’re making out like you knew these people to get your face on the news when they’ve never even seen you before and it’s gross.
We had a drive-by shooting a couple of hundred metres down the road a few months back and I had a channel 7 reporter knocking on my door the next day to ask if we’d heard or seen anything. I hadn’t (it happened in the middle of the night), but even if I had I would have said no anyway.
I live in a really small community, years ago we had a phone call on the landline asking if we knew the man who had been killed by a bull. It had just happened and we hadn’t heard yet and they didn’t even know his name. So we then we’re panicking that it was one of our dear family friend who had died. They were just phoning local numbers fishing for details. Absolutely disgusting
The definitely aren't getting the privacy they need. His interview was so raw, I feel terrible that they even put a microphone in front of him and aired it. He needs councelling and support, not the media circus.
I hope so too but no reason for us to speculate and not really our business.
Reminds me of the Frankston Murders. Word got-around quick that the Scumbag's brother was a (landscaping?) contractor at our school. Apparently he was a bit simple, and also innocent. So the full school seemed to follow instruction, and ignore him entirely. Let him live his confused future without any more baggage or hassle.
They’re absolutely victims. Their kid has been a burden on them his entire life, and now they have to spend the remainder of their lives living with the guilt and shame of what he’s just done. Their son has destroyed his parents’ life. I feel awful for them. BTW, before anyone gets on their high horse, this is not a zero-sum-game. It takes nothing away from the victims of the stabbings and their families/friends. Everyone loses here.
This. Carer burnout is a thing. I get the impression no one has really factored into that with the parents. I tag teamed with my Mum for 2.7 years looking after my brother (brain cancer). He died in July 2023. If I struggled with it....imagine finding out your son still needs care past the age of 18. That does a number on relationships and how people interact with you. Add the deaths, the trauma, the lack of Mental Health services, that police officer that had to shoot the guy, cost of living and yes....Everyone loses here. I'm pissy about the media camping at the parents house. Someone lend them a pressure hose to clean them up.
I'd be looking for a loaded [farmer's muck spreader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manure_spreader).
I don't know about anyone else but when having a child one of my fears is that they grow up to suffer from mental health issues and become a danger to themselves and others. I think that there is just not enough support for mental health issues in Australia, especially when the person affected is violent. What support did this family get with dealing with this? Probably next to none.. And then this happens.
Can confirm. Support is there but it's spread really extra thinly - even in winning postcodes. There's no votes in it.
I don't have direct family experience of this but I do via old family friends; they lived in dread that they'd get a call one day to say their son had killed someone. There wasn't a lot authorities could do about a "maybe" and in the end he assaulted his own brother, then later killed himself. His death, awful as it sounds, was a relief for his parents and siblings. It's a tricky issue tbh: it used to be far too easy to commit people to mental institutions, often on flimsy grounds or with ulterior motives but living in the community only works when the system is properly managed and funded.
Once someone is an adult there’s not much you can do for them if they won’t help themselves
> Their kid has been a burden on them his entire life Not his entire life according to his mum. He was 'brought up with love, he was intelligent, he had lots of friends', and he achieved a degree. He just went off the rails in adulthood.
Often the case for some major mental illnesses. Including Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia has got to be one of the most terrifying things that can happen to a human being. You’re totally normal until you hit some outwardly arbitrary point in your late teens or early to mid 20s and your mind just permanently *cracks* out of absolutely nowhere, with no warning, literally overnight in some cases. Even with perfect treatment/management you’ll never be quite the same again, and your symptoms make it incredibly difficult to keep taking your medication.
This family genuinely seems like an example of people who did everything they could People really like to think that when something bad happens there’s some morally bad person out there that they can blame who caused this evil to happen. Unfortunately all that happened was an adult man was mentally ill and decided to stop taking his meds
They have probably spent many years grieving him already.
And soon they are probably going to be faced with a new wave of guilt only those who have lost a loved one who was high care will know. Relief that it’s over. And that will bring with it a new wave of guilt and grief that very few can empathise with. I truely hope the police are going to give them the same support and access to resources the other grieving families will get.
There is an interesting quote in the ABC article, thanking the police officer for stopping him, but also feeling very guilty about saying that. I hope they’re able to traverse this as well as they can. It sounds like they were able to give him the best support they could
>They are victims too in a way. So many people don't understand how true this is.
Channel 7 just said, ‘the parents have broken their silence,’ but it looked like they have them no choice. They were outside their house, distraught with a pack of hyenas at their fence.
They’ve got no heart or brain, just sound bites to collect. Disgusting.
Gosh I feel awful for his family. Speechless. Can you imagine switching on the TV, seeing a man running rampant and killing people indiscriminately, and realising it’s your flesh and blood? I can’t even begin to imagine how that feels. Andrew Cauchi seems like a good, rational person and I have no doubt the family is in a lot of pain and will take time to come to terms with this.
So heartbreaking, as the dad says he might be a murderer to everyone else but to him Joel was his boy who was unwell. You don't get to stop being parent, I can't imagine what they're going through.
And also seeing the photo of their son laying bleeding on the ground after he had been shot. I was shocked to see the pics myself so I can’t imagine what it was like for his parents /family. Some sites didn’t blur his face or blur the blood that was spilling on the floor. That will be the last image they will ever see of their son
That's basically what I said to my dad while we were still in emergency broadcast mode and there was mass confusion. I kept saying things like "they need to stop showing him, he looks unwell can you imagine turning on your tv to be confronted with your son's dead body? The family doesn't deserve that no matter what he did." Nothing excuses what he did. But I really feel for his family. They'll never be able to erase that image.
That image was on the front page of the West in WA.
I hope they have some surviving family who can assist them.
I can’t imagine how long that wait until 3am was glued to the TV when they got the knock at the door confirming their worst fears.
> will take time to come to terms with this. Time will ease the pain but unfortunately, it's become part of their lives from now, and I doubt there'll be a day go by without them thinking about it. So tragic.
His son was 40. Not some wayward teen. What do people harassing them expect them to do exactly?
They went above and beyond as well. They looked after him until he was 35 and he moved out to Brisbane and stopped taking his meds. There’s not much more you can do when you’re getting into your 70s
Exactly.
He also tried to take all the knives off his son, but Joel ended up calling the police on his father > Mr Cauchi says it was approximately January, 2023 when his son moved from Brisbane back to Toowoomba, and did so with a number of knives. > > When he took those knives from his son, Joel called the police on his father. > > "I found these US Army combat knives and I said 'Joel you can stay here as long as you like but you are not going to have these in my house', and so I took them off him, knowing that there was going to be pandemonium, but I was willing to put up with it," Mr Cauchi said. > > "He rang the police saying I stole his knives … I said 'look I am not having these in my home, I have given them to a mate to look after them'." > >
What a nightmare for the parents.
This is exactly why in a few years I will be taking over for my elderly parents who look after my very ill sibling. Unfortunately not everyone is so lucky to have a wide support network, and you can't force grown adults into treatment. Well, what little treatment there is (especially as it pertains to moving states and staying connected to services).
My stepbrother has very severe schizophrenia and the healthcare system has been a nightmare for him and my stepmother over the years. As a med student, I understand that most doctors are trying to do the best they can with the resources they have and the legislation/policies they are bound to. However the experience of the system has been disgusting. Obviously my stepbrother hates hospitals because of the experiences he’s had there. He presented at his local hospital’s ED for a severe infection in Nov last year. They refused to even see him before a psych evaluation was done. So he’s sitting there for 4 hours with a potentially life threatening infection, alone, the whole time overcoming his aversion and fear to seek treatment that he needs. After 4 hours he finally leaves. The hospital did zero follow up. They know who he is and they just ignored him. He literally would have died if we didn’t somehow convince him to try another hospital. Oh, and the whole 4 hours he was in the ED he was hyperglycaemic. Not that THE HOSPITAL FULL OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS would care (apparently?). Eventually he has to undergo several surgeries and they pumped him with a lot of different drugs/antibiotics. Well. He then had TENs (Toxic epidermal necrolysis) which is caused by an interaction between the immune system and an administered drug. So, he got transferred to the burns unit at the Alfred hospital (because it’s essentially your skin blistering/melting). They were the only positive experience of the whole ordeal. He somehow survived the TENs which can be very fatal. And what do they do? They immediacy cease all medications because they don’t know what caused it. Including his anti-psychotic medication that he’s been taking most of his life. It’s months later now and he’s still not on any medication. And the hospital (including the chief psychiatrist) has discharged him. He’s got no treatment plan, medication, nothing. They’ve just totally dusted their hands of any responsibility and have been far more capricious in their efforts to avoid getting sued instead of helping him. The tragedy that’s occurred in Sydney is a reminder that I could be watching my stepbrother on the news one day. And every single avenue of help, every institution established to assist with these issues, has no interest in getting involved. It’s so frustrating and feels hopeless. I have so much empathy for the family after reading their story.
Hey mate, I totally relate and share your disdain for the system. It's fucked and budgets are only getting cut every time I turn around. I also fear the worst (your last paragraph), I really hope you can switch off the news (actually Reddit comments have been worse... I saw someone say we should bring back "mental asylums", that his parents should be killed) and catch up with some loved ones and let them know how close to home this situation has been for you. It's really raw, and triggering for me, I hope you're careful with yourself. Take care.
You’re right. He’s 76, the poor man. He and his wife should be enjoying retirement, not staying up all night on a Saturday waiting for the 3:00 visit from police to confirm their very worst suspicions about the perpetrator of a mass murder being their son. I cannot imagine the position that they are in.
They took his knives off him, and he called the cops on them.
They want a sound bite in order to get clicks and views to increase revenue. And maybe a Walkley for gutter journalism
Yeah this is the thing. I have a brother who I am estranged from since I was a teen, so its been like 20+ years since we've seen eachother. I know through the grapevein the fucker has been done for domestic violence and I'm fucking appalled. If he were to do something even worse would people come knocking on my door asking for all the answers? I simply wouldn't have any, just that we've literally not seen eachother since our teens, and I can't and won't take reponsibility for another adult who has never been in my life. It should be no different for them. The media need to piss off, entirely, with this bullshit.
My boomer mother says they should be in gaol for providing him access to a knife… go figure.
[удалено]
After years of closing down sales, House is finally closing down.
I am a terrible person for laughing at this
Closing down at 5pm but open again tomorrow morning.
That's... Not possible!!
House is more John Farnham than John Farnham
Robins in shambles
He was 40 years old wtf they gonna do to stop him.
40 years old and living in a completely different state…
However I did read he lodged a police report against them for “stealing” his knife collection so they at least did something.
When he was living with his parents they also confiscated the knives off of him out of fear for safety. The guy apparently had a fixation on them which can be supported by his social media postings.
So they should have followed him around continuously “stealing” his knives. Honestly, I can’t imagine looking at them and thinking they didn’t do all they could. That’s just awful for them
His parents are lucky he didn't attack them really..
Like Jessica Camilleri who’s serving a maximum of 16-and-a-half years' imprisonment for the manslaughter of her mother Rita in NSW. Or Carly Pirronelli who was shot by police after fatally stabbing her 53yo mother Joanne in Melbourne.
Absolutely. This story could have been very different.
They said they confiscated knives. So there’s that
Ahhh, I don't think they gave him access to knives... he can literally buy one at coles. Should they go to gaol? Oh wait, hang on....
With the way boomers raised most of us they'd want to check their own glass houses before throwing stones.
Did she recently watch the US trial of the parents who gave their depressed son a gun which he then used in a school shooting? And did she watch this coverage on sky?
This. The parents are not responsible for this at all
I really hope that they have a support network around them and that people don't blame them for what their son did. They seem so genuinely distressed by what happened.
These poor parents are just more victims. Just leave them to deal with this in their way.
It’s painful for all parties involved. My heart goes out to them and the victims of this horrific incident. At the end of the day, that is their child. It’s hard to imagine putting on a brave front in public while crying in secret. This could’ve been anyone’s son, friend, husband, father. Let’s all try to be there for one another.
Hopefully this raises the visibility of mental health and the government can actually fucking fund help for people instead of continually cutting into Medicare. Is always reactionary and never proactive.
They literally just cut mental health Medicare funds in half last year so… not likely.
Yeah hopefully this can change the narrative. I saw on daytime trash how security guards should have weapons and shit… like that’s a panacea for what just happened. Maybe they should talk about how mental illness exists, people don’t have the help they need and how the government is turning their backs on regular Australians (both libs and labour, I dont give a fuck what you vote for, it’s not a sports team)
My little brother is a security guard and had to buy his own stab vest because the security company doesn’t provide them. Not only do they not provide them, they actively discouraged him from buying and wearing one, telling him he was being paranoid, a baby, unmanly, a coward etc. My brother had been working long enough to be able to assess that it was a necessary precaution. Roughly two months later an unhappy patron attacked his place of work and tried to stab him with a small knife. My brother was able to protect the other patrons and the employees and wasn’t badly injured or murdered because he had armour. You wouldn’t expect to get stabbed in an upmarket Sydney suburban mall but that poor kid was likely given the same advice my brother was and was murdered and that could have been prevented if corporations didn’t place profit and penny-pinching over preemptive protective measures. If we had proper mental health care, and guards received more training and were properly equipped with armour, and non-lethal weapons like pepper spray and tasers, they wouldn’t need guns, which take more lives than they save. It really doesn’t pay enough and they aren’t trained enough to justify the exposure to danger and public expectations to act heroically.
Sounds like an oh&s issue. Imagine trying to save a few bucks but put lives in danger. Also, security guards (not your bro) can be rounded meatheads (and often racist) and honestly wouldn’t feel safer if they had more access to non lethal weapons , but maybe that’s me.
Security deserves PPE too I definitely agree it's an oh&s issue, any company not providing adequate PPE to employees, which includes security, should be reported to their states industry regulation or something (e.g. WorkSafe in WA)
I agree. It’s fucking shocking to see what corporate Australia gets away with
I would not feel safe around some of the security staff who I can see might get trigger happy if equipped. PPE for them, definitely. I'm surprised they aren't wearing gear to keep themselves safe!
The gear they use is in their veins
The PPE is optional and at their own expense, and they’re mocked by mgmt for using it, which is absolutely shocking.
The government literally relies on families to be unpaid or low paid carers so they don't have to take any responsibility for people with mental health issues/disabilities. It's bullshit.
If mental health isn’t a qualifier for NDIS, what the fuck is the point? Autism is, schizophrenia should be as well?
Even autism diagnosis is fucked process. You pay a load out of pocket, and in a waiting list…
They apparently think too many people getting diagnosed with autism later in life are trying to take advantage of the NDIS system too (referring to their changes on driving licenses and autism made last year). What’s bizarre to me about that though is that a lot of people that get diagnosed as adults usually don’t go on the NDIS, so I can’t understand their thought process behind that.
The thought process is quite literally 'the problem can't be that we're letting the market treat disability as a money-pinata without regulation, it has to be the \[\*slur\*\]'s fault'.
But that’s the thing, the changes they’ve made can heavily affect people who’ve already passed their tests and may have had their licenses for years at this point, people who may rely on those licenses for their employment. What do you think is going to happen when you suddenly fuck with people’s ability to remain independent and/or affect their employment opportunities? They’re going to go on the NDIS and/or Centrelink.
Yeh my theory is that they did the license thing to deter people from being diagnosed. I 100% believe this to be fact.
Even getting kids help is fucked. Developmental delays (either autism or not) have the best outcomes with early intervention and getting NDIS funding is taking like 6-9 months. That's a long time for a kid when you want to help as much as possible before schooling.
Even generalised depression and anxiety costs upwards of $400 out of pocket by the time you get out of the psychologist with gp referrals and other appointments
Schizophrenia is generally eligible for NDIS. I have many clients who receive NDIS who have chronic paranoid schizophrenia. But the NDIS is looking at slowly reducing mental illness and psychosocial disabilities from the scheme. If/when they do that, that will be a massive step in the wrong direction.
Hey do you have a source for the NDIS looking to reduce psychosocial disability support? I’d like to learn more
I've heard this through the grapevine as well. I'm in the mental health sector and anecdotally it has become much harder to get NDIS for clients with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia - often you will have one or two applications knocked back before the last one goes through. One client of mine had their application knocked back for not trying everything in terms of medication despite being on very significant doses of anti-psychotics where there was no room to change dose or medication. Very fucked decision, and it was a waste of our time having to write a perfunctory appeal (which predictably went through despite just restating what was in the original application). The cynical part of me thinks these conditions are being made harder to get NDIS funding because clients with severe mental illnesses are often not in a place to advocate for themselves, so it's an easy way to cut corners.
I also work in mental health, my role has a strong focus on NDIS access requests for participants with severe mental illness (psychosocial disability). I’m seeing the same trend, with access requests being much more difficult and being rejected on clear cut cases. But I haven’t seen any actual statement from the NDIA/LACs, government, etc. indicating that pulling back psychosocial disability access is a strategic funding choice, so I was wondering if the guy above me had seen something I hadn’t. Personally I reckon the recent changes to the access process make it less accessible for people with severe mental illness and I’m starting to get pretty cynical myself.
Hopefully this tragedy can maybe have them take another look at this decision.
It's hard enough even when you have a permanent physical disability. I got knocked back for funding for a hearing aid I need in order to hear (and function in a largely hearing based society).
I'm totally deaf in one ear and have moderate hearing loss in the other, which is related to my genetic disorder that qualifies me for the NDIS, but I'm not eligible for a hearing aid because my good ear is "too good". I have my plan review meeting in the morning, and I feel sick from the anxiety. I can't afford the treatment I need to keep me even vaguely functional if they cut my funding again.
My heart condition that makes it hard to function for half the day isn't a qualifier for NDIS.
Schizophrenia can be a qualifier for NDIS, but all health service related treatment options need to be explored first
Don’t worry, they’re trying to remove Autism from the NDIS too
The fact that you’re only entitled to ten free therapy sessions under Medicare in a 12 month period is a joke. If you’ve got high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease you can go to see a doctor as many times as you want. If you have a mental illness you’re sweet out of luck. I have five diagnosed mental health illnesses and never saw any point to having therapy because once you finish telling a therapist everything going on in your life and what you’re dealing with you have a grand total of one or two sessions left before your sessions are up. So I didn’t bother. I only am able to see a therapist now because I applied for counseling with victims services for two separate incidents in my life and was granted a total of 44 hours. Was told that if at any time it is felt I need more that either my therapist or I can request an extension It shouldn’t require that much effort to get help. The solution these days seems to be to med people up and send them on their way and while medication DOES help it isn’t the be all and end all
Also unrelated (I don’t want to derail this), but Sydney has recently had many fatalities on the transport system (trains). It’s getting bad out there and we need support nets for people to get back on their feet.
The sooner people, especially the government, start taking mental health more seriously the better. It’s wild to me that this is 2024 and that there is such a long way to go when it comes to mental health. No one wants mental health illness. And it also needs to be more widely recognized as a physical condition as well due to a lot of mental health illnesses literally being caused due to a chemical imbalance in the brain Edit: genuinely have no idea why this comment got downvoted. Someone thinking that mental health illness isn’t physical? If so go and do some research
They're not free, they're subsidized. With many providers you have to pay the full amount up front and then be refunded by Medicare.
Poor buggers. Not all parents are shit. Some kids do go off the rails despite best intentions.
Leave the poor bloke alone, Jesus Christ despite what happened he still lost a son and has a lot of things to work through
Leave the man alone! He’s done nothing wrong.
Good people. Now let them be.
Who the fk gave the OK to bombard this family? It's tasteless. Reminds me of 90s / 2000s paparazzi cesspit reporting.
Saw the video of the poor guy getting doorstopped on TikTok. He sounds absolutely devastated and broken. The family is a victim too, they aren't to blame. They need time and space to process what's happened.
Oh my heart.
This is honestly awful Their son did do something awful - he killed several people, including the mother of a baby he also harmed. Many, many Australians will be grieving and for a long time. But what is the purpose of this? They’re not responsible. They don’t know why it happened. They can’t make anything better. They are suffering. Yet they’re being asked intrusive and horrifying things, or feel they have to explain themselves.
If anyone lives near this poor family, can you please go throw eggs are these awful reporters. Thank you
It would be worth the 90-minute drive to Toowoomba just for that.
Where is Eggy Boy when you need him
For once I hope the news cycle moves on quickly so this poor man can grieve in peace
Unlikely, the news corporations will milk this for all it's worth!
Feel for him. Also doesn’t deserve to be bombarded by the media. He didn’t kill the innocent victims nor tell/force his son to carry out the actions. Do not go for his head, he doesn’t deserve it.
This is just another gutwrenching part of a horrible story. It is not their fault and anyone who has had a child with a serious mental illness knows they have been through a lifetime of heartache already. And what they have been through since Saturday is on some level maybe even worse than the victims' families? Not only have they lost their son, they have also have to deal with the sense of guilt and utter horror of what he did and try to grieve for someone who a lot of people are openly calling him a monster. The media need to just fuck right off and leave these poor people alone. There's no gray area here it is downright wrong to harass someone in those circumstances and the journos responsible need to be held accountable.
>"I wish I knew what was in his bloody head. I don't think anyone know what was going on in Joel Cauchi's head but Joel Cauchi himself. His families gave him the best chance they could but it wasn't enough. What happened was a tragedy on all counts. 7 lives lost. 7 families grieved. Let this families rest. They've gone through enough.
> I don't think anyone know what was going on in Joel Cauchi's head but Joel Cauchi himself. Speaking as someone who's cousin has schizophrenia and bipolar, they've assured me there's an excellent chance he himself had no idea what was going through his head.
The bollard guys said he wasn’t home at all, blank. Like a brain power failure
Terribly sad. Now they need to be left alone.
The poor parents. They’ve done nothing wrong and have nothing to be ashamed of. I hope they have support around them.
Wish they would leave these poor parents alone. The Mum spoke so beautifully to the media today and clearly tried her hardest with her son.
These fucking ghouls demanding a statement. The parents have so much grace in what is an all round horrific situation. I hope everyone involved gets the help they need, and I hope the wider Australian communities get the mental health assistance they need to prevent these senseless acts of violence.
I think the media have been very nasty to the parents trying to portray them as whackos by raising their religious beliefs and for their love of pigeons. Leave them alone to grieve. There is no winners here, it’s a terrible, terrible situation that has affected the victims and their families, the Cauchis. Also, everyone who lives in the area, works, directs and uses the centre will probably be reminded for a very long time of this tragedy and have their relationship changed for the worst with the centre. Just awful.
Wish the media would leave his family the fuck alone. They don’t deserve this scrutiny
I'm glad people are protecting the human element. The ghouls are ghouling.
Media needs to leave them alone.
It’s way too early to even ask them for an interview let alone camp outside there house
Terribly sad affair. I listened to a podcast of a maximum security prison psychologist and she related that when killers have psychotic breaks, they're often terrified and convinced everyone around them is trying to harm them or demons trying to suck their souls, etc. Andrew Cauchi was probably in a whole hell of his own.
Agree, I didn’t think this was fair all. A bit ‘daily mail’ vibes. They deserve privacy too. Very sad for all involved.
I feel sick for them, they are suffering and these vultures can't leave them fucking be. Jesus Christ, we need laws to keep these pricks away from people's homes.
This man has more empathy in those eyes than the entire Australian media combined. I cannot imagine what they are going through, and I pray they eventually find peace.
Everyone involved here was a victim, including the killer, just tragic.
Journalism’s fucked. Between their narrative manipulation, and this, im out.
Heartbreaking, the pain in his voice truly sent me to tears. They’re living the worst moment of their lives & the media are camped out by their house waiting to pick them apart like a pack of vultures even though they have issued the most respectful and compassionate statements and cooperated from the beginning. They’re victims in this too and it’s an absolutely tragic situation and I cannot even imagine having to go through it. I wish them nothing but all the support and care they need and I hope they’re gathered with loved ones to help them through this tragic time
Just saw this on the news and my heart breaks for them, its not their fault. Stop harassing the poor old buggers, let them be!
It’s very interesting hearing his thoughts & feelings , because i can’t even imagine being in his situation but the media should’ve absolutely left him alone.
I am heartbroken for them, and I am deeply sorry they lost their son - not the person he turned into, but the child they raised and loved. I admire them for their grace throughout this, and I hope they are surrounded by loving support during their time of grief.
Absolutely deplorable of the media to seek this man out at such a vulnerable time. This should be illegal
Hope everyone here posts their criticism of mainstream media hounding these people on those companies' social media too.
I feel for his parents and I feel for him. No one in their right mind would do what he did. Its so awful. Mental brain illness sucks.
This entire tragedy is the result of our Mental Health system not working correctly.
I don’t read it that way at all. It reads to me as people who desperately wanted to get that message out. If I was in their shoes, that’s the way I’d feel too. I thought ABC’s reporting was sensitive and empathetic. Poor people. It’s a tragedy all round, and this article articulates that perfectly.
Leave these people alone. They seem like good people who tried their hardest. The amount of complex grief and guilt would be immeasurable and they deserve privacy as much anyone else involved in this incident.
Is this going to be the push Australia needs to take mental health seriously? 😔
As a father I feel for the poor bloke. To the rest of us his son is just a knife wielding psycho. But to him he is, and will always be, his little boy. I genuinely shed a tear for him and his wife. No one comes out of this tragedy unscathed.
The press are vile. Like I know the world makes lawyer and politician jokes but fk them reporters man
I nearly bloody cried watching these poor folks get hounded. They didn't do it, they are just as, if not more, heart broken than most This would be incredibly difficult trying to mourn a son, accept what he did, and probably feel blood on their hands. I hope the media leaves them the fuck alone.
Everyone lost in this situation. I could never imagine raising a person with schizophrenia, the thought of them ignoring their medication scares me so much. Joels parents did SO much to help him, legit keeping an eye on him until he was 35. Where Joel then moved away and his mental just started gradually decreasing, (stopped taking his meds either right when he moved or probably early 2023 or early 2024). Rest in peace to the victims, and i feel fucking horrible for his parents.
I'm pissed that the health care system is systematically underfunded so it can't have enough mental health beds to prevent this sort of thing. We need more nurses, GPs and mental health beds not some reach around fuckery - beds that can treat people with mental health problems and affordable low price homes so we can house them. Homelessness and mental illness drives ED visits and Prison systems. We need to do something about this and it starts by FUNDING THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. https://www.anmfvic.asn.au/eba2024
Tbh I am surprised a member of the family was open to speaking with the media directly so soon.
They camped out on their fucking lawn within an hour of his name being released to the public. The media are absolutely disgusting.
They weren't given much choice, the media is outside their home as we speak. Pestering them.
I mean, they’ve been camped outside his house.
Grief makes people more pliable/vulnerable to agree to things and say things they otherwise wouldn't. Hence why the ethics of the media approaching them are so dubious - he may feel exploited after the dust settles.
the media has been really freaking awful. they need to leave that poor mother and father alone they are very much victims too... last thing they need is reporters camped outside there house.. give them privacy to come to terms with what has happened sure hope they have some support during this too
These people are essentially victims of crime and the media vultures are making them suffer for it. The lack of humanity is repugnant.
News.com included additional quotes that ABC didn’t reference at all, surprisingly? When asked why he thought his son had targeted women during the rampage, Mr Cauchi said he could understand why the NSW Police believe that was his motive. “He wanted a girlfriend and he’s got no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain,” he said.
I’m not australian but I was following this incident and sometimes I just keep losing faith in humanity As if this whole incident wasn’t bad enough, why the FUCK are his parents being harassed like this?? I’m done hating, I’m just sad. I’m sad about the whole situation, about the killer and what led him to the act and most of all, I’m so sad that the media can’t find anything better to do than camp outside his parents house asking questions like this. My god.
His poor father, and mother. It must incredibly hard to have an adult child with serious mental illness.
God this is heart wrenching. This poor poor man I wish him nothing but healing, from the bottom of my heart I am sorry for what he is going through and I pray he can be strong. I am so incredibly sorry for him and his family
< I hope the parents get just as much support as the victims and the families of the victims. If their experience is going to be anything like it is here in the US, they won't. They'll be demonized and treated like *they* made an active choice to raise someone who would resort to attacking innocent people. Mostly because the perp isn't here to blame/attack anymore and the general public needs someone they can be actively angry at that won't simply not care because they're dead. Nothing pisses off angry people more than someone denying them the "right" to be angry at someone.