Man Haron Monis behaved “atypically” inside the Lindt cafe compared with other terrorists because of his “terrible mix” of personality disorders and extreme, violent beliefs, an inquest has heard.
Forensic psychologist Kate Barrelle, who has examined whether Monis was radicalised, told the New South Wales coroner on Thursday the gunman had been “unwell in his personality”, suffering from narcissism, paranoia and antisocial behaviour disorder.
These disorders could explain why at points during the 16-hour standoff Monis apologised to his hostages and tried to justify his actions, which Barrelle agreed was “unusual” compared to existing terrorist profiles.
“But there is no behavioural rule book for how someone behaves in a terrorist situation,” she added.
Barrelle said any apparent acts of kindness would have been “all to serve [Monis], not out of care for other people”, and about “wanting others to see him in a good light, so that would’ve been serving the narcissism”.
In the months leading to the siege Monis sent letters to the attorney general asking whether he could legally pledge allegiance to the leader of Islamic State, and posted a loyalty oath to the group on his website early in December 2014. Security agencies were warned about the posts but decided Monis posed no imminent threat.
Barrelle said none of these acts necessarily showed Monis was radicalised but “in aggregate they do lean towards visible indicators that a person is heading in that direction”.
Phillip Boulten SC, the barrister for the family of Katrina Dawson, pressed the psychologist on whether police and security agencies should have stopped Monis before he carried out the siege.
“People who had the responsibility to keep us all safe should have picked up on the fact he was charged with murder and he continued to carry on in this ideological manner as a fair predictor of him carrying out a terrorist attack,” Boulten said.
“I think that’s a very reasonable formulation, I don’t think the science is there to back it in terms of predictive tools, but that should not stop people using their professional judgment,” Barrelle said.
She said while there was “no profile to stand up and compare it side by side” – partly because psychological studies usually lag around 20 years behind contemporary events – Monis was “undoubtedly a terrorist”.
Due to his “disturbed” nature, Monis might have continued to believe he would survive the siege even after he killed Tori Johnson, she added.
“I think it’s possible that he had such a heightened state of specialness that he thought [he could survive].”
The inquest continues.
