Westfield Bondi Junction attack: Old flame of crazed knifeman Joel Cauchi gives ... trends now
A young woman says she was shocked to see the 'true gentleman' she once dated was the deranged mass killer behind the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing attack.
The Gold Coast woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, has told Daily Mail Australia about her brief relationship with crazed knifeman, Joel Cauchi, 40.
Cauchi was shot dead by lone policewoman, Amy Scott, on Saturday afternoon after stabbing five women and one man to death and injuring at least a dozen more, including a nine-month-old baby girl.
But the woman said she barely recognised the savage killer - who stabbed the infant in her pram - from the man she met on the Badoo dating app in April 2020.
A woman previously in a relationship with Westfield Bondi Junction knifeman Joel Cauchi has revealed he was a 'true gentleman' (pictured, a photo Cauchi sent to the woman between 2020 and 2021)
The woman (pictured), who does not wish to be identified, met with Cauchi in 2020 and spent a year messaging with him
'I struck up a conversation with him for a while then I had a few drinks with him at his house in Brisbane. He lived there with flatmates,' she said.
'He was a lovely guy when I met him, definitely quiet and reserved. I'm just very shocked at what has happened.
'It's hard to believe he has killed these innocent people.'
She described Cauchi as a 'true gentleman' but admitted they only met in person once as he wasn't her type.
Despite this, the pair continued their relationship into 2021.
'He was a very nice guy. Well spoken. I only saw him once but we did text for a good year after that,' she said.
'He came across a little too nerdy for me to be honest, but we still kept in touch. I live on the Gold Coast and he lived in Brisbane at the time.'
Despite Cauchi's father previously telling Daily Mail Australia the 40-year-old lived a 'backpacker' lifestyle, which involved rotating between sleeping in his car and cheap hostels, the Gold Coast woman didn't recalled Cauchi having an interest in travel.
'He never mentioned travelling to me. That's why I was surprised he was in Bondi,' she said.
Another woman who claims to have dated Cauchi said she stopped dating him due to his odd behaviour.
'We went to church together. I went on a few coffee dates with him, but he had compulsions,' she said.
'It was a bit weird so I stopped messaging him, then he said he was moving away. I'm in shock.'
Cauchi (pictured) stabbed six people to death at Westfield Bondi Junction shortly before 4pm on Saturday
The Gold Coast woman said Cauchi was 'quiet', 'reserved' and 'nerdy' (pictured, a photo Cauchi sent the woman between 2020 and 2021)
Since the shocking attack, several people claiming to have known or attended school alongside Cauchi have shared differing accounts of him online.
One person, claiming to be in the knifeman's 'close circle of friends' during high school in Toowoomba in south-east Queensland, gave some background to Cauchi's reported strange behaviour.
'He was one of those ones at school that was shy, always a bit on the weird side, but whenever he did something it was always full tilt,' they wrote.
'In hindsight he probably didn't regulate that well.
'Dropped off the radar after school but to my knowledge he didn't maintain any friendships with his circle of school mates.'
They believe Cauchi was suffering a mental health episode at the time of Saturday's Westfield attack which is a theory shared by police and achoed by his distraught parents.
Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and his parents said he had gone off his medication, which had triggered his psychosis.
'It might seem like misplaced empathy but the Joel that I knew would have not been himself, not in command of his actions while he attacked those people,' the friend wrote.
'If there's a lesson,
