2014 Sydney hostage crisis
The 2014 Sydney hostage crisis, also known as the Sydney siege and Lindt Cafe siege, occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café located at Martin Place in Sydney, Australia. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack at the time, but Monis' motives were subsequently debated. However, the findings of the Coroner in 2017 deemed the event to be a terrorist attack.
Sydney siege inquest
Prof Greg Barton and Dr Clarke Jones said that it would have been extremely difficult to predict that Monis would undertake the siege as he was a loner, had mental health problems, and was desperate to attach himself to something. Clarke suggested that if the Rebels had accepted his membership, then the siege might not have happened. Roger Shanahan from the Lowy institute said that if Monis had followed the direction of ISIS, he would have just killed all of the hostages. The Coroner ruled that the names of the DPP solicitors should remain suppressed. Lawyer 2, who represented the DPP against Monis in October 2014, had had no formal training in the NSW bail law.