"Everyone was kept in the dark," he said.

However the inquest is investigating whether Cauchi targeted specific individuals or groups.For Peter Young, the brother of Jade, the answer seemed clear. "Fuelled by his frustration with not finding a 'nice' girl to marry", his "rapid hunt found 16 victims, 14 of which were women," he told the inquest.

The NSW Police Commissioner in the days after the attack said it was "obvious" to detectives that the offender had focussed on women.However, during the inquest, the homicide squad's Andrew Paul Marks said he did not believe there was evidence that Cauchi had specifically targeted women.The inquiry also heard about a number of failings or near misses in the way security, police, paramedics and the media responded to the attack.

It was told that recruitment and training pressures for the security provider meant that the centre's control room operator was "not match fit" for the role. At the exact moment when Cauchi stabbed his first victim, the room was unattended as she was on a toilet break.Security guard Faraz Tahir, the sole male victim of the stabbings, was working his first day in the job when he was killed trying to stop Cauchi, raising questions over the powers and protection given to personnel like him.

His brother, Muzafar, told the inquest how Faraz died "with honour as a hero" and also acknowledged that Cauchi's parents had lost their son: "We know that this tragedy is not their fault."

The contractor responsible for security at the shopping centre has since updated its training and policies, as well as introducing stab-proof vests for guards.Months later, police in Sydney found Cauchi sleeping rough near a road after being called by a concerned passerby.

By 2024 Cauchi's mental health had deteriorated, he was homeless, and isolated from his family.The inquest looked closely at Cauchi's mental health treatment in Queensland, with a panel of five psychiatrists tasked with reviewing it.

They found that Dr Boros-Lavack had missed opportunities to put him back on anti-psychotic medication, one member of the panel saying she had "not taken seriously enough" the concerns from Cauchi's mother in late-2019.The panel also gave evidence at the inquest that Cauchi was "floridly psychotic" - in the active part of a psychotic episode – when he walked into the shopping centre.