A student who was wrongly named on air as the perpetrator of multiple fatal stabbings at a Westfield mall is seeking damages from the network that made the claim.
New South Wales Police confirmed that last Saturday (April 13) they received multiple reports of people being stabbed at Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction.
Images and videos of an unidentified man sporting a green Australian Kangaroos jersey roaming the center with a deadly weapon started circulating on social media.
The terrifying incident claimed the lives of five women, named Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, Ashlee Good, 38, and Yixuan Cheng, as well as a 30-year-old male security guard named Faraz Tahir. Several others were also critically injured in the ordeal, including a nine-month-old baby.
During Seven Network's Weekend Sunrise show on Sunday (April 14) at 6.05AM, co-host Matt Shirvington claimed that the suspect was "40-year-old Benjamin Cohen, dressed in a Kangaroos ARL jersey" without confirmation from the police.
Shortly after, hosts Monique Wright and Michael Usher spoke with reporter Lucy McLeod who also wrongly named Cohen, saying: "The attacker, 40-year-old Benjamin Cohen, is known to police. His motives are not yet known, he was working on his own," as cited by The Guardian.
Cohen’s name began trending on social media, especially X (formerly Twitter), with more than 70,000 posts linking him to the horrendous attack.
But several hours later, New South Wales authorities disclosed that the knifeman was actually Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old from Queensland. He was shot dead at the scene by Inspector Amy Scott.
Seven did not reveal where its newsroom got the name from, but they blamed it on "human error" and made an on-air apology on Sunday evening, read by reporter Sarah Jane Bell.
"One last thing, earlier this morning in reports of the incident, it incorrectly named the perpetrator as Benjamin Cohen," she said. "It was later confirmed that the name of the 40-year-old was Joel Cauchi from Queensland. Seven apologizes for any distress caused by our earlier reports."
High-profile law firm Giles George is now representing the computer science student in his case against the television station. Under the NSW Defamation Act, Cohen could get damages of up to $459,000, per Daily Mail.
George has confirmed he had sent a concerns notice to Seven, the first step in defamation proceedings, sharing: "We await a response from Seven," per News.com.au.
Cohen has also spoken out about being wrongly named as the killer in a statement to The Australian, stating: "It’s extremely disappointing to see thousands of people mindlessly propagating misinformation without even the slightest thought put to fact-checking or real-life consequences.
"But what’s even more disappointing to me is a major news network doing this, using my name without waiting for a statement from police to verify this or going out to try to verify it themselves," he added.
According to BBC News, the shopping mall will open on Thursday (April 18) for a "community reflection day" to allow people to pay their respects.
"It is a day of remembrance and to pay our respects to what has happened here, and the victims of the tragedy that happened here," Elliott Rusanow, chief executive officer of the Scentre Group, said. "It is a recognition that things don't return back to normal immediately."
Rusanow announced that the Westfield Group will be increasing security across all of its malls such as by having guards wear enhanced protective clothing. He added that some retailers will choose not to reopen on Friday (April 19), adding: "It will be their choice when they do so."
It has also been shared that the families of the six victims had already been allowed to visit the center where their loved ones were brutally murdered.
Our thoughts continue to be with everyone affected by this tragedy.
