A senior member of the NSW Police's crack tactical unit during the Sydney siege has recalled an incident 12 months before the Lindt Cafe stand-off, in which the offender also claimed to have a bomb, but which ended very differently.
On the previous occasion, in late 2013, the offender had claimed an Improvised Explosive Device would be detonated if the police took any action.
The Lindt gunman Man Haron Monis had also claimed to have a bomb, in his backpack, and explosive devices elsewhere in the Sydney CBD.
But unlike the siege of the Lindt Cafe, where the police strategy was one of contain and negotiate, a decision was made to initiate a direct or deliberate action to end the 2013 incident at the time of the police's choosing.
"A deliberate action was launched to save the life of the hostage, to recover the hostage from that situation," the deputy tactical commander during the Sydney siege, and former senior Tactical Operations Unit member, on Friday told the inquest into the December 2014 stand-off.
The senior officer, who joined the police in 2000 and the TOU in 2004, left the TOU in March 2015, less than four months after the siege.
Another senior TOU member, the tactical commander during the Sydney siege, has previously told the inquest he believed that despite the threat of an IED, direct action was a less risky option compared to the Emergency Action plan that was eventually initiated.
Police initiated the EA - the trigger for which included death or serious injury to a hostage - and stormed the Lindt Cafe more than 17 hours after the siege stand-off began and after Monis shot dead hostage Tori Johnson.
Monis was killed by police, while another hostage Katrina Dawson died after being hit by police bullet fragments.
The inquest continues.
