Martin Place gunman Man Haron Monis was once a Sydney clairvoyant with 500 clients and making $125,000 a year but using his business as a front to sexually abuse vulnerable women, an inquest has heard.
Monis was charged by police in 2014 with more than 40 offences of indecent and sexual assault of women when he was a self-proclaimed "spiritual healer" at Wentworthville and other sites between 2002-2010.
Monis was before the courts on the charges when he was killed in a shootout with police after taking 18 people at Sydney's Lindt Cafe in December 2014.
At the coronial inquest into the Martin Place siege on Monday, details of Monis's business as a clairvoyant and spiritual healer have been heard in detail for the first time.
His business, initially named Spiritual Power and then later Spiritual Consultation, was registered in 2001 and records uncovered by police suggest between 2002 and 2007 he had "at least 500 clients". Tax office records indicate that in one year Monis made $125,000 from the business which was his sole source of income.
Junior counsel assisting the inquiry, Sophie Callan, said Monis targeted his business at "poorly educated impressionable people, particularly women" and those who believed in "black magic or that they were cursed".
"[His] stated specialisations ... are astrology, numerology, meditation and spiritual healing," she said, adding he had no qualifications.
An advertisement, placed in local ethnic newspapers and tendered in evidence at Monday's hearing, asked prospective clients: "do you want to know about the future of your love and career?" and "is the time running out on you and are you still single? Are you wondering why you are unable to have a successful relationship?"
He operated the business from a number of premises with the main common features being "privacy" and a "sofa bed".
Monis would see his clients as often as twice a week, using initial consultations to hear their problems.
"After this he would frequently advise the women that he would need them undressed at least partially but usually completely, in order to undertake the treatment," Ms Callan said.
He would then sexually and indecently assault the women.
Ms Callan said while Monis did not go to trial before his death the evidence suggested it was highly likely he would have been convicted and served a lengthy jail term.
