Bondi mall stabbings: Benjamin Cohen settles defamation case with Network Seven after he was wrongly named as the killer

Benjamin Cohen was falsely named as the knife-wielding Bondi Junction murderer. Photo / Facebook

Benjamin Cohen, the man incorrectly identified by Australia’s Seven Network as the person responsible for killing six people in a brutal attack at a Sydney mall, has reportedly settled his defamation case against the network.

Queensland man Joel Cauchi, who had a long history of mental illness, was shot dead by police on April 13 at the Westfield Bondi Junction mall after killing Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Yixuan Cheng, 27 and 30-year-old Faraz Tahir. He also attacked Ashlee Good, 38, who died in hospital.

Good’s 9-month-old daughter survived the attack.

In the hours after the attack, conspiracy theories and misidentification ran riot online - and Benjamin Cohen was wrongly identified.

Sunrise presenter Matt Shirvington said on Channel Seven’s Weekend Sunrise programme at 6.05am on the day after the attacks that the killer was “40-year-old Benjamin Cohen, dressed in a Kangaroos ARL jersey”.

Knife-wielding attacker Joel Cauchi was caught on camera at the Bondi Junction Mall in Sydney.

Hosts Monique Wright and Michael Usher then went on to speak with reporter Lucy McLeod who also wrongly named Benjamin Cohen as the attacker, reports the Daily Mail.

“Forty-year-old Benjamin Cohen is known to police,” she wrongly said.

“His motives are not yet known, he was working on his own.”

The ABC reports that the network has now settled the case taken against them by Cohen.

“Seven accepts the identification was a grave mistake and that these assertions were entirely false and without basis,” Seven Managing Director Jeff Howard said in a statement to Cohen.

Howard said that Seven apologised to Cohen for the false statements and said they withdrew them “unreservedly”.

Benjamin Cohen issued a statement online, saying people online who “target individuals or communities should be held accountable for the consequences of their actions, and platforms should be more accountable for the content they host”.

Patrick George, acting on behalf of Cohen, said in a statement the terms of the settlement were confidential.

- Additional reporting, AAP