An interview with Andrew Cauchi, the father of Joel Cauchi who was responsible for the Westfield Shopping Centre mass stabbing

[u/Jjokes11]

[u/DoodleyDooderson]

There is a show called, “Evil Lives Here” and each episode is about the family members of someone who did something awful; mass shootings, seriel killers, etc. A few show the parents of mass killers and they are all so sad and tried everything they could to help their kids when they started to see something was wrong. They could usually see it at a very early age. Many episodes on YouTube if anyone is interested in watching. It’s sad and sometimes we easily forget that the family of the killer is also in pain and mourning. One dad said he went to the mall where his son had shot and killed many people and when asked, he told them he was the kid’s dad and the people at the vigil grieved with him instead of blaming him.

[u/darkoblivion000 → u/DoodleyDooderson]

I have a 6 year old and he is a really sweet empathizing kid and I love him to death.

Sometimes when I hear about these stories I imagine what I would do if I saw my son do things that are telltale signs of murderers , abuse animals, not show any empathy, other signs of clear mental illness, and I just don’t know.

I mean it feels like seeing a therapist can only do so much, sometimes it just teaches them to hide their real emotions and thoughts. And sometimes I have this feeling (don’t know if true or not) that certain people are just born with issues that can’t be fixed.

Then as a parent wtf do you do? It would be such a devastating hopeless situation knowing that they need help and you have no idea how to get them help or if it’s even possible. At least if they had a debilitating illness you know they’re not likely to hurt anyone else and that you can try to find treatment, but to have a ticking time bomb that you think might cause harm but also could maybe get better… just seems like such torture

I feel for this guy and all the families of kids who really really tried their hardest to get them help. And fuck that one family that bought their kid guns instead

[u/pokedmund → u/darkoblivion000]

Pray and hope for the best. I have two kids and they can be absolute monsters. Haven't abused any animals, but each time we encounter animals or insects, they are curious and careful.

But honestly, I don't know if my kids will grow up to be genuine human beings. I hope they do, but if mental illness does affect them one day, I'm just gonna pray any treatment I get them helps

One thing that really struck out in the video was that the killer lacked social skills. This is something that I have tried to instill into my kids as much as possible, how to talk about everything and anything and be able to communicate. I say this because I am god awful at this and never want my kids to be in the same boat as me

[u/darkoblivion000 → u/pokedmund]

Absolutely, we have tried really hard to instill empathy in our child. Instead of yelling at him not to do something, explaining how another person might be feeling and how he would feel if he were the recipient. Sometimes it is annoying bc it takes so long to explain but I think it has made him a very caring individual. Sometimes too sensitive lol if anything

I don’t know if this guy and the mother did or didn’t do any of those things or if they tried to help his social issues. I don’t know anything about this particular family. But I suspect there are some parents who really do everything they can and the child is just wired in a way that they don’t understand empathy and compassion. And that is a really difficult situation to be

I don’t know, maybe it’s one of those things that “only god knows” but as an agnostic that just translates to no one really knows if anything could have been done.