Sydney knifeman’s mum ‘didn’t tell police her son went home to get clean clothes before stabbing spree – despite knowing officers were hunting him’
The Sydney knifeman accused of stabbing a woman to death and injuring another returned to the family home just three days before the attack, while he was wanted by police.
A hunt had been underway for Mert Ney, 20, since August 7 after his sister Yazel called police claiming he had assaulted and choked her at the family’s Marayong home in Sydney’s west.
Police weren’t alerted by his mother he briefly returned to the home three days later to pick up clean clothes, despite knowing police had been looking for him.
It would be the last time Ney would be seen or heard of again until he went on an alleged stabbing rampage in Sydney’s CBD on Tuesday afternoon which left Michaela Dunn, 24 dead and Lin Bo, 41, injured in hospital.
A hunt had been underway for Mert Ney, 20, since August 7 after his sister Yazel called police claiming he had assaulted and choked her at the family’s Marayong home in Sydney’s west
‘He went home on August 10,’ a police source told The Australian.
‘Only his mother was home and she knew police were looking for him yet she didn’t call us.’
It’s since been revealed Ney tried to seek medical help three times in the week leading up to his alleged rampage, including twice at Blacktown Hospital.
‘The government has failed me,’ Ney yelled from the police van following his arrest on Tuesday.
His family had feared Ney was a ‘threat to himself’ last week, and confirmed he had absconded from a hospital mental health ward last week
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will consider changes to the handling of mental-health patients, along with an inquiry.
‘If it’s found that we need to ensure mental-health patients have the support they need so they don’t go into this, of course we will look at those opportunities,’ she told The Australian from Berlin.
The Sydney knifeman accused of stabbing a woman to death and injuring another returned to the family home just three days before the attack, while he was wanted by police
His sister Yazel fronted the media outside the family home the day after her brother’s alleged rampage.
She said her brother needed to face the repercussions of his alleged actions.
‘I want him to suffer, I want them to put him in the worst (most severe) mental health institution.
‘But I know the law might be lenient or oh, he’s mentally ill, we’ll let him go. Then another woman’s going to die.’
She added: ‘I don’t want to go near him. If this happened to like family members you know, you wouldn’t want to go near them, would you?’
Michaela Dunn died when he throat was slit, hours before Ney went on the rampage
Her mother was so stressed by the incident she had to see doctors on Tuesday night and hasn’t been eating, she said.
‘I wish there was a way I could make it better for her,’ the sister said.
Ney’s distraught mother broke down in tears when she was told her son had been arrested and even told police they ‘got the wrong man’.
Ney, who remains in hospital under police guard is expected to be formally charged on Friday.
SISTER OF CRAZED SYDNEY KNIFEMAN WAS ‘CHOKED AND PUNCHED DAYS BEFORE RAMPAGE’:
A sister of the man accused of going on a violent rampage through central Sydney claims she was choked and punched by her brother just days before the alleged attack.
The city was thrown into chaos on Tuesday afternoon when Mert Ney, 21, stormed through the centre of the city brandishing a large kitchen knife.
A woman was found with her throat slashed inside a nearby unit and another was found in the back of a pub with a stab wound to her back.
Ney, 21, grew up in a brick home (pictured) in Marayong, near Blacktown, the middle sibling of two siblings and the son of Turkish-Cypriot parents
Ney was detained at about 2pm as heroic bystanders made a citizens’ arrest, and police were soon on the scene.
His sister Yazel told The Daily Telegraph she notified police about her brother just six days earlier after she was allegedly punched in the face and choked.
‘He ran at me, punched and choked me, I couldn’t breathe.’
Police earlier confirmed they were on the search for Ney last week in relation to a domestic violence issue.
Yazel said she felt disgusted at her brother’s alleged behavior and called him a ‘monster’.
She claimed her brother had battled depression and schizophrenia for a number of years but she could not pinpoint where the trouble began.