A Sydney man, Benjamin Cohen is suing an Australian channel after he was wrongly identified as the attacker in the incident that shocked the country’s biggest city. At least six people were killed when a knife-wielding man went on a stabbing spree at a crowded shopping centre in Sydney over the weekend. 

Cohen, 20, is suing Australia’s Seven Network after he was wrongly identified as the attacker in the mass stabbing incident in the Westfield Bondi Junction mall on Saturday (Apr 13). 

The university student has hired defamation lawyers and issued a concerns notice to the Australian channel, Patrick George of the law firm Giles/George confirmed, on Wednesday (Apr 17) morning. 

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Cohen has engaged two of Australia’s foremost defamation lawyers, Patrick as his solicitor and Sue Chrysanthou as his barrister. 

The 20-year-old has sought damages from the broadcaster, which on Sunday (Apr 14) morning named Cohen, a student at the University of Technology Sydney, as the perpetrator. 

Joel Cauchi, who was identified as the attacker, was fatally shot by the police during his knife attack. The officials have since ruled out terrorism and said the 40-year-old had a history of mental illness.

The 20-year-old university student’s name was trending on X until Sunday with more than 70,000 posts naming him as the unconfirmed killer. The Australian channel later described him as “40-year-old lone-wolf attacker Benjamin Cohen”.

However, Cohen’s family told ABC News that the Seven had contacted them and explained that a junior social media editor made the error. However, the channel did not reveal where their newsroom got the university student’s name from. 

In a statement to Guardian Australia, Cohen said that he was disappointed to see “thousands of people mindlessly propagating misinformation” without fact-checking or considering the real-life consequences. 

He added, “But what’s even more disappointing to me is a major news network doing this, using my name without waiting for a statement from police to verify this or going out to try to verify it themselves.”

The channel later issued an on-air apology saying that it “apologises for any distress caused by our earlier reports.” 

The shopping centre which was the site of the deadly attack will re-open for shoppers on Friday (Apr 19). The Scentre Group, which operates Westfield malls in Australia and New Zealand, said that the security and police presence will be ramped up when the shopping centre re-opens. 

The mall will also be open a day earlier for a “community reflection day” which will allow people to pay their respects to the victims of the tragedy and recognise that “things don’t return back to normal immediately,” said the CEO of the group, Elliott Rusanow. 

A nine-month-old baby girl who was among those injured in the attack and has been in the intensive care unit (ICU) since, is out of ICU now, after she sustained chest and arm injuries. 

The daughter of one of the victims, identified as Ashlee Good – who was killed during the attack – was taken to the hospital in serious condition but is now stable, said health officials. 

Six, including the infant girl, remained hospitalised following the assault, with two women in critical condition, said a spokesperson for New South Wales Health.

(With inputs from agencies)