Ben Cohen speaks out after he was wrongly identified as the Westfield Bondi ... trends now
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A Sydney university student claims he was sent 'thousands' of messages after he was wrongly identified as the knifeman behind a horrific attack that saw six innocent shoppers killed.
Ben Cohen, a 20-year-old first-year computing science student at the University of Technology, was falsely accused online of stabbing shoppers at Bondi Junction Westfield on Saturday afternoon.
NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley has since identified 40-year-old Queensland man Joel Cauchi as the man who attacked shoppers with a knife.
The name 'Benjamin Cohen' began trending on X - formerly known as Twitter - just hours after the stabbings with more than 50,000 posts mentioning his name.
Mr Cohen slammed internet sleuths' accusations as 'very dangerous' noting they could 'destroy people's lives'.
Ben Cohen (pictured) was wrongly identified by internet sleuths as the knifeman behind the Bondi Junction Westfield attack
The knifeman (pictured during the attack) has since been identified by police as 40-year-old Joel Cauchi
Mr Cohen's father, Mark, said the family, who live together in Sydney's eastern suburbs, were 'freaked out' by the shocking allegations.
'I think they've just gone for the first face that kind of looks the same and matches their own motives or what they wanted the story to be,' Mark told news.com.au.
'They don't realise how much harm they can do. I have worked
