Sydney stabbing: Sister of accused Mert Ney speaks out

The distressed sister of alleged Sydney knifeman Mert Ney said she doesn’t want to visit her brother in hospital and described the attack as “despicable”.

“In the past week it’s obvious it’s, like, steep descent into insanity I guess,” she told reporters in Sydney’s west today.

“We thought he was a threat to himself.”

When asked what she wanted to say, the young woman said “mostly I just want to say sorry to the (victim) — she was, like, younger than me.”

She said the CBD rampage didn’t come to her attention on Tuesday until after her brother had allegedly killed “defenceless” 24-year-old Michaela Dunn — who suffered a laceration to her neck — and stabbed 41-year-old Linda Bo in the back.

“I was … so shocked. ‘Cause I was in the city as well, I was coming back from the city,” she said.

“I didn’t hear anything about it at all until people were telling me, ‘Hey, look on the news’. Then I got a call from the police.”

Ney, 20, remains under police guard in hospital and has had surgery for a cut to his knee.

“I don’t want to go and meet him,” Ney’s sister said.

“If this happened to some family member, like, (who) you knew, you wouldn’t want to go near them, would you? Like, something so despicable.”

The sister said she felt it would be “unfair” to start “blaming” mental health services when they could have been doing all that they could to help her brother.

Ney had been suicidal, she said.

The young woman also appeared concerned and upset, at times telling media to “please stop getting closer” as she addressed the situation.

“I still can’t believe it’s him but it is him,” the sister said.

She had earlier told reporters and photographers to “get off” the family property at Marayong near Blacktown.

One man was also seen by waiting media delivering flowers to the house earlier today.

Ney spoke of “Allah” as he was hauled away in the back of a police van yesterday.

Seven News reported he said “Allahu Akbar he will protect me”.

Detectives are working to piece together his movements in the days leading up to the attack.

The 20-year-old, who has a history of mental illness and drug abuse, walked out of Blacktown Hospital last Thursday after reportedly being treated for an overdose.

His whereabouts between then and 2pm on Tuesday, when he emerged on the corner of Clarence and King streets wielding a 30 centimetre butcher’s knife and covered in blood, is a key focus of the investigation.

The Daily Telegraphreported Ney presented at the emergency department last Wednesday, August 7. He left the hospital through the ambulance doors at 6.15am the next morning, with police notified.

Authorities were reportedly already looking for the man from Marayong in relation to an alleged domestic violence issue involving his sister, and his family had listed him as missing.

It’s understood Ney, who lives with his mother on Percy Street, Marayong but has been homeless at times in recent years, appeared in front of a magistrate in Blacktown Local Court in June over alleged possession of knuckledusters.

According to the Telegraph report, the weapon possession charge was dismissed with no conviction recorded on the condition he not commit another offence in the next nine months and also seek mental health treatment.

Homicide detectives are investigating the possibility he had a relationship with Ms Dunn, 24, after they reportedly met on classifieds website Locanto.

Police discovered the body of the woman around 3.15pm in a unit inside Clarence House near Wynyard on Tuesday.

Ney’s second alleged victim, Ms Bo, had been sitting inside Hotel CBD when she was stabbed.

She taken to hospital in a stable condition and is expected to recover from her injuries.

It was shortly after he allegedly stabbed the pub patron that a group of brave bystanders chased down the armed man and restrained him with chairs and a milk crate until authorities arrived.

Ney attended Blacktown Boys High School and Marayong Public School. A former peer from the latter told The Daily Telegraph he was a “weird” loner who kept to himself.

“He was the weirdest guy who never said a word, not one, his head was always down in a book and in the breaks he would stand alone, never speaking to anyone,” the former student said.

“He was a year above me but he stood out for being alone.”

Ney also had a USB on his person loaded with information about recent attacks carried out by white supremacists including the New Zealand massacre, but police say he was a “lone actor” and has no known links to any terror organisations.

Formal charges are expected to be laid against Ney once he is released from hospital and questioned by police.