The Wieambilla shooters’ murderous actions were influenced by shared religious and persecutory delusions consistent with a rare psychological disorder, an expert will allege, after the probe into the shooting heard that the trio’s conspiratorial beliefs emerged much earlier than previously known.
On Tuesday, the coronial inquest into the six deaths at Wieambilla continued with its forensic examination into the police account of what happened on the remote Queensland property on December 12, 2022.
On Monday, counsel assisting Ruth O’Gorman KC previewed proceedings for the next month. The inquest will first focus on a minute-by-minute breakdown of the six hours that began when four police officers arrived at the property where Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train were residing, and ended with the Trains’ deaths at the hands of tactical police. It will then investigate the Trains’ motivations, the events that led up to the day, and organisational issues and potential reforms.
As part of her brief overview of the case and the witnesses set to appear, O’Gorman provided new details about the Trains’ beliefs and mindset. O’Gorman’s introduction of a future witness, Dr Andrew Aboud, disclosed that the clinical forensic psychologist will testify that the trio were experiencing delusions and other symptoms consistent with a shared psychotic disorder called “folie á trois”, where one individual’s delusions are transmitted to other parties.
“Gareth, who had a delusional disorder was the primary. That is the person who suffered a genuine primary psychotic illness, while Stacey and Nathaniel were secondaries,” O’Gorman said Dr Aboud will say.
Previous reporting had painted a picture of Gareth as a domineering force over both Nathaniel and Stacey. Dr Aboud’s opinion is that Gareth suffered from a genuine psychiatric condition.
The inquest will also hear that the bizarre beliefs and behaviours that culminated in the attack emerged following to the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health response: “COVID seems in many ways to have been a trigger for some of the events which occurred,” O’Gorman said.
Social media posts, emails and other evidence from the period after Queensland declared a public health emergency in early 2020 will be shown at the inquiry and will demonstrate the Trains’ shared conspiracy beliefs. According to O’Gorman, Gareth posted anti-government and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories in March 2020 that were also held by Stacey, while Nathaniel’s emails from as early as August that year show that he too held these beliefs. This evidence will demonstrate the Trains’ conspiratorial beliefs emerged earlier than previously known.
These views also veered into promises and fantasies of violence years before the attack. O’Gorman said Gareth posted a warning that “any and all who raise arms against Australians will pay with their lives” in late 2020. After Nathaniel had a heart attack while working as a principal in Walgett, O’Gorman says a recorded conversation between Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey in hospital captured Nathaniel saying he had dreams about fighting police and shooting them to get through COVID-19 border closures.
Less than 18 months later, the Trains acted on these threats. On Monday the inquest was shown photographs that demonstrated the trio’s preparation for the ambush: hidden dugouts with tents, books and dumbbells for long stays, barricades, mirrors to blind police, and stacks of camouflage army gear including a ghillie suit worn by Nathaniel during the attack.
On top of the gate that the four junior police jumped over, 120 metres away from the spot where they were fired at by the hidden shooters, one of the Trains had glued a mug, a photo provided to the inquest showed. It was emblazoned with the phrase: “Have a nice day”. Inside the mug was a smashed iPhone with a single word scrawled across it in scratchy handwriting: “FUCKWITS”.
