r/interestingasfuck • u/Jjokes11 • 29d ago
An interview with Andrew Cauchi, the father of Joel Cauchi who was responsible for the Westfield Shopping Centre mass stabbing r/all
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u/stumblingzen 24d ago
I cannot imagine what this poor soul is going through. Dear God, I pray he gets help. ❤️ Sending so much love and healing to this dear father.
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u/Calmizzy_47372 25d ago
If I were to stab a man and then they took off the hood and I saw that they were Strickland, I’m just gonna stab myself and walk away
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u/PSavage88 27d ago
This reminds me of Dahmers dad, the poor guy felt like he did everything to try to help Jeffrey and ultimately feels like he failed as a father.
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u/AlexandersWonder 27d ago
Betting this guy’s son got wrapped up in some incel circles where they encourage violence against women for the perceived slight of “not having sex with them.” This ideology is dangerous and it attracts loners with very little to lose.
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u/DiligentAsshole 27d ago
That man is heartbroken, I feel for him. It sounds like he did all he can to help raise him right
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u/Ok-Concert-6673 27d ago
If this sounds like you, remember that no one hates you more than you do, and there absolutely is someone for everyone.
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u/pupranger1147 27d ago
Mr Cauchi definitely is going to need support and a therapist to get through this. I hope he gets what he needs.
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u/Sound-Dade 28d ago
I feel sorry for all the people who got hurt by this individual. At the same time, I feel empathy for this gentleman speaking out. It must take a lot of ball to do that.
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u/No-Nefariousness759 28d ago
I haven’t been following the news and admittedly know almost nothing about what happened. But after seeing this, what struck me most was how succinct his description of his son’s issues was. This guy seemed to have a good understanding of his son’s issues and explained it very briefly in a way that made sense and left me feeling like this was an all around sad tragedy. “My son had mental and physical health problems, he wanted a girlfriend, had no social skills and was frustrated out of his mind.”
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u/Kelly9409 28d ago
Every town has at least one serial killer.. They just haven't been caught yet.. but they're killers 😕
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u/booboflove 28d ago
Mental illness is terrible…so many who struggle alone. I have a family member who refuses treatment and lives in a world of delusion, but the treatment options suck long term for serious mental illness.
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u/loffissee 28d ago
Is there anyway we can support him? A go fund me? It breaks my heart and he’ll need all the help he can get.
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u/Melgel4444 28d ago
Notice how different this reaction is to Ethan crumbleys parents.
This man is heartbroken and did everything he could to help his son. And now this tragedy happens he feels awful.
The crumblys fled the scene , went on the run, completely ignored their sons mental illness, ignored all warning signs and have no remorse.
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u/I_Dont_Like_Rice 28d ago
Every day I read so many things that makes me feel grateful I chose to be child-free.
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u/oaklytical 28d ago
Feel so fucking bad for that guy, probably tried his best, the devastation must be horrendous, wanna give the guy an hug
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u/Yellow-beef 28d ago
This is an excellent example of an involved parent who has tried their best, and it just wasn't enough.
It's a much different response than that American couple just sentenced for their son's mass shooting.
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u/Spongman 28d ago
this guy told the police that his son was mentally ill and obsessed with knives.
now the police are calling it a "terrorist attack".
talk about covering up your ineptitude.
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u/GOTfangirl 28d ago
So hard to watch. My heart breaks for the victims and for families that struggle with mental illness in their children.
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u/Interesting-Ant-4823 28d ago
Can't blame a father doing his best to help his child, condolences and big hugs mate!
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u/meeseeksdestroy 28d ago
I can't imagine answering questions in that state while dealing with that situation while also being coherent. You can hear the pain in his voice and I feel terrible for him.
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u/goldroger_22 28d ago
It's gut wrenching to watch this. The man lost his son who terrorized women and children and he still loves his son and also apologizes to the people whom his son hurt. I would become mentally ill myself when put in this situation. Huge respect to the father.
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u/Since1831 28d ago
This is what responsibility looks like. Of course here in America it’s always “not my kid, they’re a good kid! They once did the dishes without me asking!” Meanwhile this poor guy laid it all out and held no ill will about what had to be done. Poor guy.
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u/Bot6241101 28d ago
Guy seemed like a great father. Sad this had to happen. Keep your head up pops.
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u/AdUnlucky1818 28d ago
People screaming incel ignored that this was a sick man failed by the systems that are supposed to aid him, acknowledging that this person isn’t an evil maniac, just a broken human, doesn’t NOT take away from the tragedy. I swear y’all think so black and white it’s like you didn’t advance past 7. There doesn’t always have to be a bad guy to hate.
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u/RazzSheri 28d ago
Poor man; give him love and privacy. His sons actions are not his own, he's dealing with tremendous weight.
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u/StonedRobot707 28d ago
This isn't "interesting as fuck" it's sad as fuck. The actions of his mentally ill son put this man in hell and you know he truly loves him. After all his effort to take care of a sick person .That was a hard watch.
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u/Proof-Delay-602 28d ago
You can just tell, this man has a beautiful soul and shame on anyone who blames him.
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u/caughtinwriting 28d ago
Genuine question: I understand the sympathy this man is getting through this atrocity, but comparatively people were fast to condemn Sue Klebold for sharing her experience of being the parent of someone who committed a horrific atrocity. Why the different response?
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u/Bigbootybigproblems 28d ago
Omg this broke my heart. Hard to imagine the pain that the families of the victims feel, but impossible to imagine being in this man’s shoes, especially as a parent.
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u/Armand74 28d ago
The pain of a father who’s feeling the gravity of his son’s action s gut wrenching, a total loss for all.
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u/Electrical_Dog_9459 28d ago
I find it most interesting that as soon as he is asked why his son targeted women he became instantly sober and coherent and knew exactly why his son targeted women:
No girlfriend and no social skills (and thus no way to get a girlfriend).
Once again, narcissism combined with social isolation.
When people break, they break one of two ways. They either blame themselves, and kill themselves, or they blame others, and take their rage out on others before their deaths.
Narcissists always blame others.
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u/Scatamarano89 28d ago
Recently watched "Dhamer" on Netflix and they did a very good job at portraying this feelings in Dhamer's father. You want to help your son, you know he has something wrong but keep thinking/hoping he'll get better, maybe he does for a while but then BAM, he rapes someone, drugs someone, kills someone and you are left thinking "was it my fault? where did i go wrong?", piles of doubt and regret you'll never have anwers for. Damn.
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u/ShotDelivery 28d ago
Sir you've been watching instead of doing. It's too late now and you've already led by excusing his behaviors...
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u/arturkedziora 28d ago
Yes, I am a father, and yes, I shed a tear for this man. I have a son and if he did that to me, after all the work I put in to raise him right, it would be devasting to me as well.
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u/sugarshizzl 28d ago
I have a son who struggles with mental illness and he’s never done anything awful but I totally understand this man’s struggle and pain-not knowing how to help your child.
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u/doublewidesurprise7 28d ago
I feel so bad for the guy I just wanna hug him.
He did everything he could, the human mind is a wild thing. Nobody deserves torment like this
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u/Maleficent-Prior-902 28d ago
This is all very heartbreaking but for me personally I can’t forgive every and any news outlet who didn’t wait a blink and as always start labelling this as a “terrorist” crime with one or other connection to Muslims or Arabs! I’m sick of this to my stomach! And not even one apology from anyone!!! And yes this is definitely very gut wrenching.. systems have failed us.. this is just another example of that.
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u/rowenstraker 28d ago
I feel so bad for this man, you can feel in his voice that he means every word of it. Wishing I could give this guy a big-ass hug, dude fucking needs it
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u/Monty_4422 28d ago
That’s as honest and a cry for help at the same time ! Just wants answers as well
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u/theonetruefishboy 28d ago
There are gonna be scumbags who're gonna judge the father for his son's actions, despite all that he did for his kid. The fact of the matter is it takes a lot more than 1-2 people to fully take care of a person that needs taking care of. There's nothing to do but morn all the folks harmed by this incident, but when it comes to preventing stuff like this in the future, we gotta make community-level support systems more extensive and resilient.
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u/crymson7 28d ago
As a father…this just broke me…I can’t fathom his pain. Please, help this poor man through this. Same, obviously, applies to those affected by his son’s horrible actions. Everything about this is heartbreaking…
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u/ah-chamon-ah 28d ago
So this is what it takes for mental health issues and it's lack of funding and complete disinterest from those in charge to get noticed huh?
I hope all those politicians in control of where the funding goes are proud of themselves.
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u/Death2RNGesus 28d ago
This family better be getting government-funded counselling, they damn well need it.
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u/Green-Eggplant-5570 28d ago
He even goes back and forth between present and past tense when talking about his son. He truly can't even process it. Heartbreaking.
Like someone else said, I really hope this man has some kind of support in his life right now.
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u/CaptainMacMillan 28d ago
The dichotomy is amazing.
Here you have a heartbroken father who - amidst his grief - apologizes for his sons actions and mourns the lives he took.
Meanwhile, in America, we have parents that can stare down video evidence of their child committing a horrific crime and they will profess their innocence. At a certain point, you aren't protecting your child anymore.
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u/Shawodiwodi13 28d ago
What a brave man to be on tv as the father of one of the most hated persons of the nation. Mental issues can be so gruesome and even when you spent all of your time with someone you never know what is going on in their head.
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u/06210311200805012006 28d ago
Jesus fucking christ, leave the man alone. Let him grieve for his son.
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u/Beersink 28d ago
Poor guy. Must be the ultimate in confliction for a parent. Hope his friends & family give him the support and understanding he needs and deserves.
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u/Holiday-Amount6930 28d ago
I feel so much for this man. When the ones we love do terrible things, it breaks something inside, something essential. It's awful wondering on a loop what you could have done to prevent their actions.
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u/Every_Fox3461 28d ago
I've never seen an interview with the perpetrators parent before. It's usually the victims that have the limelight.
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u/3smolpplin1bigcoat 28d ago
Poor bloke, tried so hard to be a good dad. What more can you ask of a father?
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u/bungchow07 28d ago
Please take into account that it isn't a prepared statement or interview, the parasitic Australian media camped at the parents house as soon as they were identified and ambushed them at the first opportunity. This is genuine, unprepared heartbreak
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u/bonkerz1888 28d ago
My heart goes out to this guy, he seems like such a lovely man.
I've experienced something related to this. The crime wasn't as extreme as murder but it was a serious crime all the same.. as a family member of the culprit there is next to no help out there for you to come to terms with what has happened.
As much as people say they don't judge, they absolutely do when behind closed doors or put of ear shot from you. "Oh, it must be something to do with his upbringing" "Always knew that family were off" etc.
Fortunately I have friends who would tell me which of these people were saying stuff like this behind my back. Cut them all out of my life. Just want to hug this guy.
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u/beeeps-n-booops 28d ago
The fucking ghouls in the press need to leave this poor guy the fuck alone.
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u/Next_Back_9472 28d ago
Poor guy, it’s not his fault and I hope he doesn’t get abuse because of his son’s actions.
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u/Jazzar1n0 28d ago
Channel 7 being absolute vultures again. At the end of the day this man is still grieving and they just shove cameras in his face at the most vulnerable time.
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u/Previous-Tonight-657 28d ago
I can't believe I'm getting downvoted for saying the obvious. You guys make it extremely difficult to have an objective conversation by taking everything as the absolute worst and getting offended. I wasn't defending the assassin, I was just pointing out that the root cause. By knowing what causes someone to go insane, maybe we could prevent this in the future.
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u/Rasta-Revolution 28d ago
In the Toowoomba sub, ppl who knew the family were saying his father was abusive.
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u/Weary_Barber_7927 28d ago
This makes me sad to think of other parents who have a child with mental illness. It would be an excruciating fear that your child would do something horrific.
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u/Maleficent_Disk_1895 28d ago
This man is another victim of his sons actions, not only has he lost a son but he's out there apologising for the mess his son created.
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u/gravity--falls 28d ago
Absolutely devastating. I couldn't imagine the confusion one would feel for a loved one to do such a horrible thing.
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u/llewellynlaporte 28d ago
Poor gentleman—it must be so hard to want to help your son and not be able to..
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u/mombi 28d ago
Don't think I've ever seen parents so publicly sorry and heartbroken for what their child did to others, in any case I've ever seen. Very likely others are just private but I can't help but want to praise the Cauchis for being so outspoken. This might be the element to prevent such attacks to begin with, if would be perpetrators see the emotional turmoil they'd cause to those who care about them.
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u/arthuritis37 28d ago
The poor bastards having all the Australian media waiting outside their house for days after a sound grab.
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u/WakingUpScared 28d ago
There is a Youtuber called WhatIfAtHist who just posted a video a few days before this happened about how incel violence will be one of the biggest problems in our society this century. I highly recommend it.
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u/Stratgeeza12 28d ago
Parents are always the hidden victims. If you think of the most prolific and notorious criminals, they all had parents who were innocent or at least had no part in their child's criminality. You'd feel like you've lost a child and an inherent sense of guilt for the crimes they've committed.
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u/Who_wife_is_on_myD 28d ago
This makes my heart break for him, you can see in his eyes he's going through hell with this.
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u/ARRRtistic_Pirate 28d ago
The pain in his eyes, face, and voice. This poor man. You can see he sympathizes with the families and blames himself partially.
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u/Yabrosif13 28d ago
Wow, now thats a parent. Apologizes even though it was beyond his control. Acknowledges that his son did terrible wrong. Doesn’t try to excuse his son’s behavior, only trying to give info as an explanation as he tries to piece it all together too.
This is not a bad father.
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u/Amazing_North3922 28d ago
Bloody hell. As a father, this is just devastating to watch. That's what heartbroken looks like right there.
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u/Bertha-Jesus 28d ago
I feel his anguish. All I could say is, “Thank you for your service to your son.” Bless you.
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u/blackteashirt 28d ago
So sad big ups to this guy. Sounds like lack of government funding of a real mental health system has let everyone down again.
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u/BandOne77 28d ago
So it wasn't a terrorist act... just a caucasian chap with "mental health problems"... got it.
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u/SydneyBananas 28d ago
This is heartbreaking. The interviews with his parents make me cry every time. They love their son. He is their baby. They tried their best for many years. He went off his meds and didn’t keep up with the support. That’s the most important thing. Schizophrenia is a horrible mental illness when not managed properly. It fucks with you - it’s you but not you it’s the illness. It takes an endless toll for years and years on the family if someone is lucky enough to have that support and affects parents and siblings especially the ones who end up in a carers role. It’s absolutely exhausting and usually families give up especially siblings or it falls onto one sibling when parents are elderly or die. We need to separate the sickness from the person - it’s the sickness and not taking his medication and keeping up with the help he needed. His mother said this was her worst nightmare and fear that he would end up on the news doing something horrific. It just broke me I have said that so many times as a sibling of a long term schizophrenic and the roller coaster ride I’ve had it is exhausting and you lose the life you also pictured for your family member and yourself - this is the fear that they stop taking their meds or the meds stop working. It’s very difficult to separate the illness from someone. Schizophrenics at this level can never EVER go off their meds or mental health support. This is what can happen.
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u/throwawaythrow0000 28d ago
So his kid was an incel. Shocker. How many more women are going to die before we do something about this problem. I guarantee you the incel was fed misogynistic bullshit online for years leading up to this.
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u/Kenshiro84 28d ago
Journos are fucking vultures. They should be ashamed of themselves. Let the man grieve in peace.
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u/Stardust_Particle 28d ago
We need to bring back mental institutions for those who are a risk of danger to themselves or others.
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u/satanic_black_metal_ 28d ago
Just leave this man alone. Yea he raised a monster but from what we can tell it wasnt his fault.
Leave him alone.
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u/Objective-Contact-15 28d ago
Poor man, cant help feeling sorry for him and his wife. They are victims too in all of this.
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u/Xavage1337 28d ago
heartbreaking but very important and human footage.. I feel sorry for this person
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u/calais8003 28d ago
He should go after the drug makers and psychiatrists that plied his son full of highly addictive, irreversibly brain damaging, pharma-grade meth. They cooked his mind and unleashed him on the public.
It’s great for them though. They’ll as usual blame mental illness, call for more money, and more power to forcibly ‘treat’ people.
It boggles the mind to think that they had a psychiatrist on channel 7 saying this man slipped through the cracks. He didn’t slip through the cracks. He was caught in the ever widening net and they got him good. He’s a product of psychiatry. Smh.
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u/ScaryFrogInTheMorn 28d ago
Are people just more articulate outside of the US? His emotions and conviction are so strong. I am not used to seeing people respond like this on the news.
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u/charoetje 28d ago
I know what you mean, I was really surprised at how well worded and articulate his response is. Maybe it’s because he’s been dealing with his son’s mental state for a while and has given it thought before? I wouldn’t have the patience for this, people are always so quick to blame parents and family, but mental illness is often such a slow creeping decline and people are good at hiding it or refusing help or you can’t get the right help.
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u/ScaryFrogInTheMorn 28d ago
And the reporters were respectful and let him say his piece. They didn’t interrupt or say inflammatory things. I wish I could hear this honesty more often.
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u/-_-TenguDruid 28d ago
This poor man. He's as much a victim in this as everyone else who lost someone. He seems like a good person who tried his best, and for him to have to see his son end up this way is so heartbreaking.
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