It’s been almost two months since a gunman took 17 men and woman hostage in the Lindt Cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place, and now many of those survivors are speaking about their experience for the first time.
In a television head-to-head like no other, Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes and Channel Seven’s Sunday Night are both asking survivors to recount the events of December 15, 2014 — the day that ended in tragedy for Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson, and an ordeal that the others will never forget.
Both shows, which are airing Sydney Siege specials tonight during the same time slot, are presenting a version of events based on interviews with hostages and people who had close first-hand experiences with the events of that fateful day.
Almost all of the men and women who were held inside the cafe for 17 painful hours are recounting their versions of the story, with only two, Julie Taylor and Stefan Balafoutis, declining to be interviewed.
The interviews, conducted by Liz Hayes for 60 Minutes and Mel Doyle for Sunday Night, have been the subject of controversy over the amount victims were being paid to tell their stories.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Nine paid as much as $1 million to secure interviews with eight of the hostages, and that Marcia Mikhael received in excess of $300,000 from Channel Seven.
Read morehere: Should the victims of the Sydney Siege be allowed to profit from their ordeal? Yes. Yes, they bloody should.
Here’s a closer look at what you can expect tonight…
The Siege Survivors – 60 Minutes, Channel Nine.
Eight of the survivors, including Lindt Cafe workers Fiona Ma, Paolo Vassallo, Harriette Denny, Jarrod Hoffman and Joel Herat were interviewed by Liz Hayes for 60 Minutes.
Ms Denny, who was secretly 14 weeks pregnant at the time, recalls the terror of being faced with her death in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The 30-year-old said she had resigned herself to the fact that she would probably be killed.
“Knowing that you’re about to die is kind of hard, the desperation you feel, the fear, you lose hope, thinking about your family outside, thinking there’s nothing you can do to get yourself out and it’s very hard,” she said.
“I remember sitting down and I thought I had a sense of calm. I started to be grateful for my family, for my partner and my friends and the fact that I know that maybe I won’t be able to have this baby.
“I was very grateful that I was able to experience the pure love and happiness of being pregnant so at that time I remember thinking if he shoots me, as long as I don’t feel it or see it coming I’d be OK with it.”
Ms Ma, a recent graduate of James Ruse Agricultural College in Carlingford, remembers Ms Denny telling her she was pregnant. “It was a good moment in a bad day,” she said.
She also added that, despite watching her colleague Mr Vassallo leave, she could not bring herself to do the same.
“I can’t leave people behind because I wouldn’t be able to live with, you know, the guilt.”
Read more: Sydney Siege: Disturbing new details of what happened inside the Lindt Cafe.
At just 19 years of age, Jarrod Hoffman was the youngest victim of the siege. He and colleague Joel Herat, 21, told Liz Hayes about their decision to arm themselves with switchblades and kitchen knives just minutes after the gunman took control of the cafe.
“I’ve got this knife in my pocket and I know Joel has a knife in his pocket. And we are so close we could do this but you know someone would need to jump, hold his arms down and then I would stab him in the jugular,” Hoffman said.
“But he had his gun, he had it on his knee and I could see that it was pointed directly at Julie Taylor’s back.”
Both Hoffman and Herat have been credited as pivotal in assisting Julie Taylor and four other hostages escape early on December 16.
Selina Win-Pe also said that the two young men played a key role in helping herself escape as well as acting as peacemakers as the gunman became increasingly crazed.
“I thought he was going to shoot us in our back,” she said.
Read more: Sydney siege gunman had 20 shotgun rounds left when shot by police.
MS sufferer Louise Hope, 52, who was trapped in the cafe alongside her mother Robin, recalls being left in the cafe after most of the hostages had escaped and sheds tears as she speaks of watching as Tori Johnson was shot and killed by the gunman.
Ms Hope was shot in the foot during the siege and her mother was shot in the shoulder.
After having worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, Liz Hayes told The Daily Telegraph earlier in the week that she felt “traumatised” after listening to the victims speak.
“The guilt they feel about surviving, the tears they have — even those who ran, the guilt they have is terrible,’’ she said.
60 Minutes airs tonight at 6.30pm on Channel Nine.
Inside the Siege: The Untold Story – Sunday Night, Channel Seven.
Channel Seven interviewed Marcia Mikhael, Elly Chen and John O’Brien about their experiences of the siege and how it has impacted their lives.
At 82 years of age, Mr O’Brien was the eldest victim to be taken hostage by the gunman. He recalls, during his interview, the phone call he made to his wife Maureen to tell her he was one of the hostages.
Ms Mikhael, a mother-of-three and Westpac employee, spoke of her risky communication with a police officer who was watching her through the window of the Lindt Cafe.
“The police officer asked me then, ‘how many gunmen in the room?’ Because I had my arms up in the air, all I did was just point. You know, number one, to him,” she said.
“And then he told me to take another deep breath again, and then he disappeared.”
The 43-year-old also credits 19-year-old Hoffman for negotiating with the gunman when he became angry that a couple of the other hostages had fled.
Ms Chen, who was also working as a barista in the cafe, says Ms Mikhael saved her life.
“They say that everything happens for a reason. And if that’s the reason I was there, to help one person cope and one person get out of there alive, then I’m happy with myself,” Mikhael responded.
Channel Seven cameraman Greg Parker also talks with Mel Doyle about his role in the siege, filming for the entire 17 hours from the company’s Martin Place studios.
“I showed him the shot and, by chance, the gunman was middle of frame. Gun, headshot, you could see the lot,” he said.
He recalls what happened next, “Another officer came in and said ‘Look, we really need the basic surveillance that this camera’s providing. Are you prepared to stay?'”
“Of course,” Parker said, “who wouldn’t?”
Sunday Night airs tonight at 6pm on Channel Seven.