Sydney stabbing accused 'agitated' night before alleged attack

A teenage couple who claim they met the accused Sydney stabbing attacker the night before his alleged rampage have described him as "agitated" and "scary".

Courtney Ridgeway, 19, and Nathan Tgiy, 16, said they were staying in a room next to Mert Ney's at a halfway house in Blacktown, in Western Sydney, on Monday - the night before the alleged attack.

Ms Ridgeway claimed he kept them awake discussing terrorism on his phone, including around information he had on a USB stick.

Police confirmed last night confirmed they found a USB drive on Ney which contained details of previous terror attacks, including those in New Zealand and the USA.

Police at this stage have not confirmed any terror links as investigations continue.

Miss Ridgeway said: "He was talking about terrorism and Allahu Akbar - he loved that word, he was saying that a lot.

"I think he had it planned what he was going to do the next day.

"He just said he had a USB and was researching, studying what was on it."

She said she felt uncomfortable earlier in the evening when Ney approached them and the pair decided to go back to their room to get away from him.

"He was looking at me, particularly, in a very scary way," she said.

"I couldn't even look at him, that's how scary it was.

"And then me and Nathan thought that it wasn't right, that he wasn't right in the head, so we were like 'let's go back to our room, because he was too much for us.

"He really at his wits end. He'd had enough of the system. He was really agitated the night before."

Mr Tgiy said the alleged attacker told him how his family had "disowned" him and he had nowhere to go.

He also reportedly told the couple he had recently been released from a mental facility.

Mr Tgiy said: "He was just telling me about how he's at a bad state in life, he got disowned by his family, and his brothers and sisters kicked him out and his mum and dad kicked him out and he's got nowhere to go, and housing won't help with anything."