“The coroner’s decisions today are very pleasing for the families,” Mr Lombard said. “They always wanted a full and open investigation that shows not only what did but what could and should have taken place." James Gargasoulas did "doughnuts" outside Flinders Street Station minutes before he murdered six people in Bourke Street. The inquest was initially going to examine the six days before the incident – when Gargasoulas was released on bail until he turned into the Bourke Street Mall – but not the actual murders. The families had asked for the inquest to examine all that took place until Gargasoulas was arrested, including whether police could have acted differently while the murders were taking place.

Friday's decision means the inquest, scheduled to run from November 18 to December 20, will now likely extend into February 2020. Stephen O’Meara, QC, counsel assisting the coroner, said it was likely up to 10 extra witnesses will be required to give evidence. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "In light of her honour's ruling this morning to expand, we will determine in the next week how many additional witnesses will need be be called," Mr O'Meara said. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton had sought to prevent the airing in the Coroners Court of a ‘‘critical incident review’’ into police handling of the nine-hour hunt for Gargasoulas.

But the families of those killed, along with media organisations including The Age, fought the force's attempt to keep that report secret because it was ‘‘inextricably linked and inextricably intertwined’’ with attempts to understand events leading up to the massacre. The internal review will now be able to be referred to in full during the upcoming inquest, expect for the names of two covert police officers who will be given pseudonyms. The coroner's reasonings behind her dismissal of the force’s application on Friday, took less than five minutes to deliver. But the ramifications may be huge and could set a significant precedent for other inquests involving police, with past applications to suppress police documents previously weighing heavily on the assertion that if made public, some police reports could compromise the force's methodology. Dr Ian Freckelton QC, acting for police, indicated that the officers called to give evidence during November's inquest will probably need their own lawyers in a move he labelled a “significant exercise”.

“A decision has now been made that it would be preferable for all police, [except] for the very most senior, to be separately represented,” Dr Freckelton said. The coroner also noted the victim’s families requests to refer to Gargasoulas as “the offender” rather than by name during the inquest and said reasonable efforts would be made to do so. The Age has previously revealed that the elite Critical Incident Response Team ignored repeated requests from local police to help contain and arrest Gargasoulas in St Kilda and Elsternwick almost nine hours before the tragedy unfolded. Police began searching for Gargasoulas at 2.20am on January 20, about an hour after he stabbed his brother, who was expected to die from the frenzied attack.

Alerts sent during the manhunt warned officers that Gargasoulas posed a serious risk to the public and had a history of high-speed car chases. Loading Police on the ground requested CIRT respond at 4.30am and 4.40am in the hope of boxing him in to a narrow street when it appeared Gargasoulas was parked in a stolen car. CIRT denied the requests because it could not be confirmed that Gargasoulas was still armed and they would respond only if he was already contained within a police cordon. It was hours before a separate CIRT unit became involved in the pursuit as Gargasoulas sped back and forth across the inner city and western suburbs.