ASIO, Jesuits, Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, Freemasons, the pharmaceutical industry, arms manufacturer Raytheon, Learjets, military-created bioweapons, COVID-19 vaccinations, chemtrails, children being removed from their families, and humans being turned into non-humans wearing meat suits: these were the subjects of conspiracy theories, delusions and preoccupations held by the Wieambilla shooters listed in a single sentence by a forensic clinical psychologist appearing at the Wieambilla coronial inquest, which is aiming to outline how the attack happened and how it could have been prevented.
Dr Andrew Aboud did not have a chance to interview Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train prior to the December 12, 2022 attack which left them, and three others, dead. Instead, he studied an enormous amount of material including text messages, emails, diary entries, letters, witness statements and more to understand what was going on inside their heads.
“What I have is all the information around them that was provided by other parties or other sources, so [the Trains] end up being these shadows that I have been trying to analyse and understand in terms of everything that they were,” he said.
His expert opinion is that the Trains were showing symptoms of a rare shared psychotic disorder. In Aboud’s view, Gareth Train suffered from a delusional disorder, with religious and persecutory delusions, that was eventually shared with Stacey and Nathaniel.
By the time four police officers jumped the gate at the Wieambilla property, the Trains completely believed that a day of religious salvation was nigh — Aboud was able to narrow it down to a date roughly around April 2023 — and that approaching intruders were devils and demons who were a threat to their souls.
The inquest heard about an endless number of paranoid, fringe, radical beliefs that spurred the Trains into action. Gareth shot at planes he believed were surveilling them. He was in contact with QAnon-esque Australian conspiracy figure Riccardo Bosi and sovereign citizen Mike Holt. The Trains refused to get vaccinated for fear it was a scheme by the government to control its citizens. Nathaniel broke through the state border during COVID lockdowns for similar reasons. The pandemic, and the response to it, was a “trigger” for the series of events that left six dead, two injured and many more scarred, the inquest heard.
The way that Aboud spoke about these beliefs was that they were not the cause of the shooting in and of themselves. It wasn’t the Trains’ belief in conspiracy theories in the weeks, months and years leading up to the attack that spurred them into violence, but what was behind those beliefs — specifically, their delusions. Coming from a psychiatry perspective, Aboud had more to say about how the trio’s personalities and relationships developed and interacted over the decades prior.
According to Aboud, Gareth Train had a paranoid personality disorder for much of his adult life and may have suffered a mild brain injury prior to birth. This graduated into a full-blown delusional disorder around the time he moved to the Wieambilla property in the mid-2010s. He was a troubled child and long had a sense of inadequacy that played out in various ways: interests in bodybuilding, guns, military strategy, conspiracy theories and a desire to dominate others. The inquest heard he had suggested suicide pacts in previous romantic relationships.
In contrast, both Nathaniel and Stacey Train were described as intelligent, impressive and normal. It was their intense, intimate relationships with Gareth that was the precipitating factor for their involvement in the shooting.
Aboud brought up three different claims of child sexual abuse made by the Trains (the reporting of the details of which are restricted by a court non-publication order). He cautioned that none of them may have actually occurred, but said that the Trains’ belief in the claims strengthened the unusual bond between the trio.
New details were shared about how Stacey began her relationship with Gareth while she was married to Nathaniel. Aboud said people in the family were “concerned” about the time Gareth was spending with Stacey after he was invited to live with the married couple and their young children, after which she began an intimate relationship with Gareth. The couple would divorce, with Gareth marrying Stacey shortly after. Nathaniel was at first upset but subsequently lived with his ex-wife and brother.
After Gareth started having delusions — described by Aboud as intense, all-consuming beliefs that are experienced by the sufferer — the more time that he spent with the other two, the more they shared his delusions. This meant that even as Stacey and Nathaniel continued to work and function, these deeply held beliefs lurked below the surface and would emerge especially when in contact with Gareth. The isolation of a remote property removed any other moderating perspective. By the beginning of 2022, all three were in a full shared psychosis, according to Aboud.
The Trains believed in Christianity, but not in the way Gareth and Nathaniel’s father, pastor Ron Train, had taught them. They feared vaccines, government surveillance and police corruption, but believed these forces were specifically persecuting them as part of a spiritual war. These ideas and beliefs were being fit into delusional thinking, reinforced by their bizarre relationships. When asked if he believed the trio had committed a terrorist attack, Aboud demurred but said he could see no political aim.
Aboud’s testimony identified the enormous amount of death, hurt and suffering that has stemmed from December 12, 2022 as a result of the chain reaction set off by a single individual with an untreated psychological disorder. The forensic clinical psychologist suggested the way to stop the next Wieambilla required significant changes to public policy.
“The public sector mental health service in this state and in this country is doing an absolutely sterling job to the best of its ability under very difficult circumstances and with some very challenging patients … in order to be given the best opportunity to succeed, there needs to be some real thought put into whether mental health should become a priority.”
