Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson was killed in the siege, along with Katrina Dawson.

Ms Taylor, who was pregnant at the time of the incident, spoke publicly about the ordeal for the first time as she took to the stand at the inquest into deaths arising from the Sydney siege.

Ms Taylor and Mr Johnson had never met prior to the siege.

“Tori was what I would describe as a model citizen,” Ms Taylor said through tears. “I believe he could have got himself out of the cafe safely.

“I admire that he didn’t do that. He must have had an enormous strength of character not to have taken those opportunities.”

Julie Taylor: ‘As we got to door he said ‘stop, put your hands up’. Picture: Channel SevenSource:Channel 7

Ms Taylor was about four months pregnant when she met her friends and fellow barristers Katrina Dawson and Stefan Balafoutis at the Lindt cafe on the morning of the siege.

She told the inquest the trio was about to leave the cafe when the chaos started to unfold at the hands of gunman Man Haron Monis.

Monis pulled out his shotgun, announced the doors were locked and told the hostages no one was allowed to leave as he falsely declared Australia “under attack by Islamic State”.

Ms Taylor revealed how the gunman told her and Ms Dawson they were “nice” and could leave — before stopping them at the door.

“I remember Monis said something like ‘you two can go or you two go to the door’ and he pointed to Katrina and me,” she said.

“I didn’t really understand what he said ... he didn’t make any sense ... I looked at him confused.

“Somebody asked him ‘do you mean they can go?’ and Monis said something like ‘yes, these two are nice, they can go’ and he looked at everyone else (and said) ‘do you think they can go? They’re nice’.

“Katrina said ‘we need Stefan, can he come with us?’ And Monis said ‘why, is he a friend of yours?’.

“And (Katrina) said ‘yes he’s our friend, we’re here together’.

“He said ‘OK, the three of you go to the door’.”

Ms Taylor said she abandoned her belongings as Ms Dawson collected her handbag and the three barristers walked towards the Phillip Street door.

“As we got to door he said ‘stop, put your hands up’,” she said.

“Katrina put her bag down next to the door and we had our hands up.”

Ms Taylor could be seen with her hands on her head through the windows of the Lindt cafe during the early hours of the hostage crisis, as footage of the moment was beamed around the world.

She told the inquest that the gunman threatened to shoot her if she lied to him about what she could see outside the cafe window.

“At one point he threatened to shoot me if I was lying about what I could see through the window,” she said.

“He threatened to shoot Stefan (Balafoutis), who he called ‘the man in the white shirt’, because he had his eyes open.

“At one point he threatened to shoot Katrina (Dawson) because he thought she was communicating with the police.

“There were several times he said he’d shoot someone if they didn’t do what he was saying.”

She said Monis learned she was pregnant and asked her various personal questions.

“He asked me about my religion and he was particularly suspicious I might be Jewish,” she said.

Ms Taylor was later forced at gunpoint to appear in a YouTube video and relay Monis’ demands during the siege.

Ms Taylor said she was too frightened to attempt an escape until the siege drew to an end.

“I made a conscious decision I wouldn’t try to escape because I couldn’t live with someone being shot because of our escape,” she said.

“As time went by I got more and more frightened and desperate.

“It became obvious there was unlikely to be a peaceful solution, the time for that seemed to have passed. I also became more exhausted.”

Ms Taylor said she reached a point where she realised that if she didn’t escape she would most likely lose the opportunity and die.

Footage captured her fleeing the cafe with her arms raised just after 2am, and just minutes before Monis executed Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson.

Tragically, Ms Dawson, a mother of three, was shot in a volley of gunfire when police stormed the building. She died from her injuries.

Months after the siege, Ms Taylor named her newborn daughter Emily Katrina, after the friend she lost in the most tragic circumstances.

The inquest is looking into the deaths arising from the siege, which began when gunman Man Haron Monis entered the cafe on December 15, 2014 and took 18 people hostage.

Cafe manager Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson were killed in the siege, along with Monis.

The moment Julie Taylor (left) escaped the cafe with hostage Harriette Denny. Picture: Joosep Martinson/Getty Images

‘THE SIEGE DESTROYED MY LIFE’

Lindt cafe hostage Selina Win Pe told the inquest how the “soul-destroying” siege has dramatically changed her life.

“I’ve been clinically diagnosed with extreme PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder),” Ms Win Pe told the inquest into the siege deaths.

“I have not returned to my previous job, nor will I.

“I have a variety of symptoms I’m treated for to this day.”

Ms Win Pe said she has also been diagnosed with hyper anxiety, depression, hyper paranoia and hyper vigilance “to the extreme” and that she was “due for a psychiatric assessment”.

“I’ve had to relearn at the ages of 43 and 44 to re-normalise and reprogram that I’m no longer in that cafe,” she said.

“My entire life has changed dramatically.

“It’s been a soul destroying experience given the particular attention this man (paid to) me.”

Ms Win Pe said she was thankful for her “beloved mother and cat” who have supported her post-trauma.

She said she had also received “wonderful support from the Australian public”.

“I am truly grateful for the process (of the inquest),” she said. “I’ve never been more proud to be Australian.

“I am truly sorry for the families of Tori (Johnson) and Katrina (Dawson). It should never have happened.”

Selina Win Pe in the YouTube video she was forced to make by terrorist Man Haron Monis.Source:YouTube

TORI’S ‘SAD’ LAST ‘CRY FOR HELP’

Ms Win Pe told the inquest about hearing what she believed to be Tori Johnson’s “sad, frightened, last cry for help” before he was shot dead by gunman Man Haron Monis.

Ms Win Pe was in the cafe for the entirety of the siege.

She said in the final moments of the ordeal, after several hostages escaped, the gunman yelled “get down, get down, get down on your knees”.

Ms Win Pe said she heard a “strong, deep, Australian (male) voice” say “oh my God” just seconds before there was a “bang” and Tori Johnson was shot.

Mr Johnson was the only male hostage who was in the cafe at the time he was killed.

Ms Win Pe told the inquest that she didn’t witness the execution but believed she heard it happen.

“I heard ‘oh my God’ and shortly after that there was a shotgun,” she said.

“They were definitely the words I heard and it was an absolutely, fearful, ‘help me God, this is it’. A very dire, sad, frightened, last cry for help. Pretty immediately (after that I heard a shot).

“Shortly after that I heard a ruckus outside and I said ‘now, now now come in now’ and things started flashing and it sounded like people were shooting from outside.”

“At every moment we were under threat. We were trying our best to get his demands met otherwise we would lose our lives.”

Selina Win Pe has been diagnosed with hyper anxiety, depression and hyper paranoia since the Sydney siege. Picture: 60 Minutes/Channel NineSource:Channel 9

HE MADE HOSTAGES REFER TO HIM AS ‘BROTHER’

Earlier, Ms Win Pe revealed how the gunman made hostages applaud her when she yelled and swore at members of the media during calls he forced her to make.

The Westpac senior manager told the inquest that she “took charge” and volunteered herself for the task of calling media and authorities on behalf of Monis.

Monis wanted an Islamic State flag and to speak with then-prime minister Tony Abbott on the phone. As the day became night, he wanted council lights outside turned off.

Ms Win Pe said she “did not stop making calls” to relay the gunman’s demands from 5.30pm.

“I felt … if I did not take responsibility and charge of the situation and speak up with the values instilled in me, we were going to die,” she said.

Counsel assisting Jeremy Gormly referred to Ms Win Pe’s statement where she had told police she had said “f***ing do this (and) f***ing do that” while on the phone to a man at a radio station.

Ms Win Pe said Monis — who made the hostages refer to him as “brother” said “I like that, that’s what I want” in response to how she dealt with the people she called.

Ms Win Pe said the “brother got fun out of it” and made “everyone applaud” her.

“I had very quickly estimated that he was someone who was clearly seeking a sense of self promotion,” she said.

“I knew that when I started to take charge to protect the people around me, and myself, and I am naturally a very strong, assertive person, and I knew he would like that.”

“(He loved) action (and) that there was someone now (communicating) his requirements.”

Ms Win Pe first took to the stand yesterday and spoke about the moment she realised the siege was unfolding.