The former partner of Man Haron Monis told a social worker three years before the Sydney siege that the gunman held extreme beliefs and wanted to become a martyr, an inquest has heard.
But the social worker, Sylvia Martin, told the Sydney hearing she saw no evidence of this, suggesting he was instead “a man who sought attention”, who believed he was “a hero in his own story”.
Martin assessed Monis after he separated from his former partner, Noleen Hayson Pal, in June 2011. Pal was murdered in 2013.
The inquest heard that two years earlier she had told Martin that Monis was “a manipulative man who successfully duped her and who eventually intimidated her and emotionally blackmailed her”.
Pal said Monis, whom she had met through his “spiritual healing” business in 2002, had undergone a sudden change five years into their relationship, “becoming more strict, asking her to wear the veil – which she didn’t do – trying to put restrictions on dancing and singing”.
He had also asked Pal to stop their children from mixing with non-Muslims, Martin said on Monday.
One note from Martin’s interview with Pal read: “Doing it for Islam want become martyr.” She said the note was “in the context of [Pal] talking about [Monis’] extremist beliefs, that she did not want the [children] growing up with such beliefs”.
Monis denied these accusations, she told the inquest. “He said he was not an extremist and not a martyr. He was a defender of human rights, that was the short of it.”
She said her impression was that he was “someone who likes to feel important, who needs to feel like a hero, or someone who needs to be admired”.
“I thought he was being manipulative in relation to the way in which he told me things [about Pal],” she said. “Criticising her whilst at the same time trying hard not to look as if he was doing so.”
The inquest on Monday also heard from former lawyers for the gunman, who was killed in a police raid 17 hours into the siege of the Lindt cafe in December.
David Cohen, who represented Monis in 2013, said he was “quietly spoken, reserved, very sure of his opinions”. They fell out after Cohen refused a request from Monis to object to the appointment of a lawyer he believed was biased against him.
Both witnesses made reference to an ostentatious suit, cream-coloured with thick, black vertical lines, that Monis would wear to meet them. “It was outstanding,” Martin observed. Cohen said it was “like out of a 1930s gangster movie”.
