Man misidentified as Bondi Junction killer hires lawyers to sue Seven

A 20-year-old man wrongly identified by the embattled Seven Network as the Bondi Junction mass murderer has engaged a high-profile legal team to threaten defamation action against the TV network.

Benjamin Cohen, who was incorrectly identified as the knife attacker by Seven on Sunday, has engaged two of Australia’s foremost defamation lawyers, Patrick George of Giles George as his solicitor and Sue Chrysanthou, SC, as his barrister.

Cohen is seeking damages from the broadcaster. The lawyers issued a concerns notice on Wednesday morning, a compulsory first step before filing a claim in court.

On Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after the events at the Bondi Junction Westfield, in which 40-year-old Joel Cauchi killed six people and injured more than 10 others, Seven’s Sunrise program named Cohen, a student at the University of Technology Sydney, as the perpetrator.

Cauchi was shot dead by a police officer, Inspector Amy Scott.

Cohen was named on social media, in particular on X, from about 8.30pm on Saturday. His name was soon trending, with more than 50,000 posts naming him as the unconfirmed killer. Many posts drew attention to his Jewish identity.

Barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC (left), pictured with journalist Lisa Wilkinson, has been hired to act for Benjamin Cohen.

Seven later described him as “40-year-old lone-wolf attacker Benjamin Cohen”.

NSW Police identified Cauchi as the perpetrator several hours after the Seven broadcast.

George confirmed his appointment as Cohen’s lawyer on Wednesday morning. “I can confirm we have issued a concerns notice to Channel Seven today,” he said.

Sunrise did not seek comment from Cohen’s family before identifying him just after 6am on Sunday, this masthead was told.

Cohen’s family told the ABC that Seven News had explained the error as the fault of a junior social media editor.

The mistake was then repeated by Sunrise presenter Matt Shirvington, among others, live on air.

A statement from Seven said it was “human error”.

“[The matter] was escalated immediately and rectified. Seven sincerely apologises for the error,” a spokesman said.

Sources close to Cohen’s legal camp, speaking anonymously as the legal action is in its initial stages, said it was a basic case of mistaken identity and believe Seven would look to settle before going to court.

Seven was asked if it would settle but declined to comment.

George’s partner, Rebekah Giles, was a close friend of one of the Bondi victims, Ashlee Good.

Giles recently acted for former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach, who appeared in the Federal Court this month as a witness in Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation suit against Network Ten.

Having already sent a concerns notice to Lehrmann on behalf of Auerbach, Giles sent a concerns notice to the Seven Network on Tuesday evening, seeking an apology and damages following Justice Michael Lee’s ruling on Monday in Lehrmann’s case.

Seven’s outgoing chief executive, James Warburton, former commercial director Bruce McWilliam, and Spotlight producer Robert McKnight are named in the letter, seen by this masthead.

The 27-page document alleges the Seven Network and the named parties defamed Auerbach by claiming he lied. It refers to comments provided by Seven to Media Watch on March 25, statements to the media on April 2, a statement to Seven staff members on April 4 (which was subsequently circulated in the media), comments by McKnight in an industry podcast on April 9 and by McWilliam in a Sky News Australia broadcast on April 4.

Seven has faced intense scrutiny this month over its efforts to secure an exclusive interview with Lehrmann over several months spanning 2022 and 2023. On Monday, Lee found that, on the balance of probabilities, Lehrmann raped former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins when the pair were colleagues.

Also on Wednesday, a source with direct knowledge of the Lehrmann defamation case, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the Federal Court had requested a transcript of comments made by Thomson Geer partner Justin Quill, one of Ten’s lawyers, outside court after Monday’s judgment.

Quill suggested that Ten’s fallback defence of qualified privilege should have succeeded. This defence was not required because a truth defence was established. However, it is possible the court may decline to order Lehrmann to pay all of Ten and Lisa Wilkinson’s legal costs in recognition of the time spent in court on the unsuccessful qualified privilege arguments.

Seven’s mistake in wrongly identifying Cohen as the Bondi Junction killer is not the first time Seven or other media outlets have misidentified the perpetrator of a major crime.

In 2022, Seven paid an undisclosed fee to West Australian man Terrance Flowers after wrongly identifying him as the abductor of four-year-old Cleo Smith.

Flowers, a Nyamal man living in Karratha, was identified as Terence Kelly, who was living in Carnarvon and later pleaded guilty to kidnapping Cleo.

In 2014, Fairfax Media, at the time the owner of this masthead, wrongly identified Abu Bakar Alam, then a teenager, as Numan Haider, who attacked two police officers outside a Melbourne police station. Alam’s photograph appeared on the front page of The Age newspaper and in other print and online Fairfax Media publications.

He later reached a settlement with Fairfax, and The Age apologised on its front page.

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