Westfield killer’s former psychiatrist should be investigated over ‘major failing’, coroner says
Magistrate Teresa O'Sullivan found that Dr Andrea Boros-Lavack’s care had deficiencies, although these were not the primary cause of the 2024 attack.
The psychiatrist who treated Westfield killer Joel Cauchi should be referred to a state medical watchdog for investigation, an inquest into the killings has concluded.
Mr Cauchi killed six people with a 30cm hunting knife at a Westfield shopping centre in Sydney’s Bondi Junction in April 2024 before a police officer shot him dead.
It put a spotlight on Queensland psychiatrist Dr Andrea Boros-Lavack, who treated Mr Cauchi for schizophrenia between 2012 and early 2020.
Dr Boros-Lavack had weaned Mr Cauchi off clozapine and aripiprazole between 2018 and 2019, but encouraged him to recommence aripiprazole after his mother reported that he had begun hearing voices and writing notes about “satanic control” in late 2019.
