Jewish student wrongly named as killer settles with Seven
Benjamin Cohen has reached a settlement with Channel 7 after the network wrongly identified him as the Bondi Junction attacker.
Jewish student Benjamin Cohen, 20, has reached a confidential settlement with Channel 7 after the network wrongly named him as the Bondi Junction killer.
According to reports, the full terms of the settlement are confidential.
A full apology from Seven’s chief executive Jeff Howard said the network “accepts the identification was a grave mistake” and the assertions were entirely false and without basis.
A statement from Cohen’s solicitor, Patrick George, said they have been instructed to make representations to the Commissioner of Police concerning those who facilitated the claim of Cohen being identified on social media platform X.
Cohen’s name and photo began circulating on X by online trolls just hours after the horrific stabbing attack that claimed the lives of six people at Sydney’s eastern suburbs shopping centre.
Simeon Boikov, who goes by the moniker Aussie Cossack on X, posted a screenshot of Cohen’s LinkedIn account and wrote: “Unconfirmed reports identify the Bondi attacker as Benjamin Cohen.
“Cohen? Really? And to think so many commentators tried to initially blame Muslims.”
Maram Susli, a Syrian-Australian conspiracy theorist that goes by “partisangirl”, then reposted Boikov.
“If this is true it would explain why I thought he looked Israeli,” she said in a now-deleted tweet.
Cohen was then wrongly linked to the attack by Channel 7 Sunrise co-host Matt Shirvington shortly after 6am the morning after the horrific attack, and again by journalist Lucy McLeod 10 minutes later.
Queensland man Joel Cauchi, 40, was subsequently identified as the killer.
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