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Tori Johnson's mother slams police over their handling of the Lindt cafe siege.

The mother of Lindt cafe siege victim Tori Johnson has slammed NSW police’s handling of the incident and its criticism of the resulting inquest.

Officers stormed the Martin Place premises in the early hours of December 16, 2014, after Johnson, 34, was shot dead at point-blank range by lone gunman Man Haron Monis following a 17-hour standoff.

“This gentle soul HAD to die before police would enter the Lindt Cafe to rescue anyone,” Johnson’s mother, Rosie Connellan, wrote on Facebook.

“It’s a national disgrace.”

Tori Johnson's mother, Rosie Connellan. Images: Facebook and ABC.

State Coroner Michael Barnes is due to release his findings today following an 18-month inquest into the incident; an inquest the NSW Police Association yesterday dismissed as "a public witch-hunt".

NSWPA's Tony King wrote in The Daily Telegraph that "...instead of scrutiny, police officers were subjected to what can only be described as a media circus.

"Instead of a sober inquisitorial process it descended into an adversarial attack and instead of a search for the truth we witnessed taxpayer funded lawyers on a frolic, cross-examining police officers as if they were on trial."

Connellan dismissed the claims.

"To say this is a witch hunt against the police means they have learnt nothing from this tragedy!" she wrote on Facebook. "The tears keep rolling."

Katrina Dawson. Image: supplied.
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The family of the second victim, Katrina Dawson, this week also expressed their outrage about police tactics that evening.

Speaking to ABC's Four Corners, the 38-year-old's parents said they were angered to learn during the inquest that police only planned to storm the cafe if one of the 18 hostage was killed or seriously injured.

Dawson, a barrister and mother of three, was killed during the raid by fragments of a police bullet.

"I think we all had this feeling that the police are there to protect us all and that they know what they're doing," her mother, Jane, told Four Corners.

"That's one of the worst things about this, that we feel very let down."