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Sydney siege inquest: Katrina Dawson was lying behind Monis, reconstruction shows.

A forensic reconstruction of the final moments of the Lindt Cafe siege has revealed hostage Katrina Dawson may have been in the line of fire behind gunman Man Haron Monis.

Several 3D computerised reconstructions, which were pieced together by forensic police, were played at the inquest into the Sydney siege on Wednesday.

The reconstructions are based on precise laser scans of the crime scene, as well as thousands of pieces of ballistic evidence, and are an approximation of what police believed took place in the cafe.

Crime scene officer Dominic Raneri told the inquest that ballistic evidence suggested Ms Dawson was lying face down with her hands over her head when tactical police stormed in.

Mr Raneri said Ms Dawson suffered cuts on the backs of her hands where it appeared she had been struck by small fragments of wood.

One of the reconstructions shows Ms Dawson taking shelter behind gunman Man Haron Monis in the north-west corner of the cafe.

The same reconstruction shows Monis standing behind a chair as police fired 22 bullets towards him.

The inquest previously heard the chair was struck by 10 bullets, and that those bullets may have travelled through the chair before fragmenting and striking Monis.

It was also revealed Ms Dawson was fatally wounded when she was struck by fragments of one, or possibly two, of those rounds.

Siege survivor Louisa Hope can also be seen in the reconstruction standing just to the right of Monis as police took aim.

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Outside the inquest she said it was confronting to see how close she had been.

“From my own mind I can remember a lot of things,” she said.

“But I have a very definite 15, 30, 60 second gap in my memory that I’ve been hoping I can clarify with this testimony.

“But I think I’m a long way from that clarification yet.”

The inquest also saw a reconstruction of the view that three police snipers had of the cafe right before manager Tori Johnson was fatally shot.

Mr Raneri told the inquest two snipers stationed in the Westpac building diagonally opposite the cafe had a partial view of Mr Johnson when he was forced to kneel on the ground by Monis.

But he said analysis of the 3D reconstruction revealed the snipers could not see Monis because the gunman was standing in between two windows in an area of the cafe that was not visible from the three sniper positions.

The fatal shooting of Mr Johnson prompted tactical police to storm the cafe seconds later and end the siege.

This post originally appeared on ABC News

 

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