Carl Williams is on trial for killing rival underworld persons, the Morans.
Carl Williams a.k.a "Premier Grogan" a.k.a "George Grogan" (b. October 13, 1970) is a convicted Australian drug dealer and manufacturer from Melbourne, Victoria. He married his wife, Roberta Kane, on January 14, 2001; they are currently finalising their divorce in March 2007. He is currently in the maximum security Acacia unit of HM Prison Barwon.
Williams was reported to have been shot in the stomach by Jason Moran during an argument in Broadmeadows on October 13, 1999, giving rise to lengthy violent turf wars known as the Melbourne gangland killings.
On 28 February 2007 Williams pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to the murders of Lewis Moran, his son Jason Moran and Mark Mallia (whose name was initially suppressed by the court). Mallia's charred corpse was found in August 2003. Williams' new girlfriend appeared in court to listen as he pleaded guilty. Under a deal with police, he will not be charged for orchestrating other murders that he is believed to have committed (such as killing Mark Moran, Jason's half-brother).
Jason Moran and his bodyguard Pasquale Barbaro were shot dead sitting in a car watching a children's football clinic in Essendon in June 2003. Lewis Moran was shot dead in the inner-city Brunswick Club on March 31, 2004.
It was also revealed in court that Williams is currently serving a sentence of 21 years for the 2003 murder of Michael Marshall. Marshall was shot outside his South Yarra home in front of his five-year-old son on October 25, 2003. The outcome of this trial had been previously suppressed.
Carl Williams once escaped certain death at the hands of Andrew Gunzolio. Carl Williams was 37 years old at the time of his incarceration.
Moran was reported to have shot Carl Williams in the stomach during an argument in Broadmeadows on October 13, 1999, giving rise to lengthy violent turf wars known as the Melbourne gangland killings.
Gangitano and Moran, along with associate Mark John McNamara, were charged over an attack in a nightclub on December 19, 1995, at the Sports Bar nightclub in King Street, Melbourne for which Moran received a term of imprisonment.
Moran was considered by many to be a "dead man walking" and when paroled from prison in September 2001 was allowed to leave Australia due to fears for his life. He later returned to give evidence in the inquest into the death of Alphonse Gangitano on November 20 which began on January 14, 2002. Moran was suspected of the killing of Alphonse Gangitano and with Graham Kinniburgh. Gangiatano was found dead in the laundry of his Templestowe house by his wife in 1998.
But today, as the plot thickened on a number of murders, the gangland strife became just that little bit more bizarre.
At the plea hearing for the murderous crime king Carl Williams, he was upstaged by a hostile ex-wife who shouted obscenities at his new female companion.
The self-styled "gangster and megalomaniac" has pleaded guilty to three of Melbourne's underworld murders, and has already been found guilty of another.
He faces sentencing in Victoria's Supreme Court next week.
From the witness box today he elaborated on the brutal standoff between his own group of drug dealers and the notorious Moran family, two of whom he's accused of killing.
Daniel Hoare was in court for today's events, and he filed this report.
DANIEL HOARE: At the height of Melbourne's gangland war, Carl Williams, as well as his associates and his family, became media celebrities in their own right.
Rarely did a day go by where Williams, his father George, or his then wife Roberta, fail to rate a mention in the media.
Roberta even warranted her very own profile piece in the magazine of a weekend newspaper.
The courting of the media by Carl Williams continued today, when Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper published letters allegedly written to his now ex-wife, Roberta.
In the letters, Williams boasts of his new love, Renata Laureano, whom he says he began a relationship with after going to jail.
The Supreme Court plea hearing for Carl Williams was held at Melbourne's high security County Court, which has plenty of room for a huge media contingent, as well as plenty of detectives.
The day started on a bizarre note as the courtroom began filling up.
Furious about how her former husband's letters to her had made their way into a newspaper, Roberta Williams arrived at court ready for a fight.
She was especially infuriated by the fact that Renata Laureano, who's sporting a large diamond ring on her finger, had also turned up at court.
Before Carl Williams had even arrived in the courtroom Roberta expressed her disappointment that he'd be locked behind a glass partition.
"If I could spit in his face, I would," she said.
When the hearing was adjourned for lunch, Roberta Williams followed Carl Williams' parents, George and Barbara, shouting obscenities at them in and outside the court as a huge media contingent looked on.
By this afternoon, after a morning of legal argument over whether the media could gain camera access to the court, it was finally time to begin argument about the case against Carl Williams.
Roberta Williams had by this time been banned from attending court, and Carl Williams' girlfriend, Renata Laureano, had taken police advice and not returned to the courtroom.
But the grandstanding void in their absence was duly filled by gangland matriarch Judy Moran, a woman whose two sons, Jason and Mark and husband Lewis, were murdered in underworld shootings.
Carl Williams has pleaded guilty to arranging the murders of both Lewis and Jason Moran.
Judy Moran has made no secret of her view of Carl Williams, and today she attempted to use the courtroom for another verbal tirade.
Invited by Supreme Court Justice Betty King to provide a verbal victim impact statement, Judy Moran began by saying:
"Carl Williams, the evil person that you are," before being promptly called to order by the judge, who insisted she keep emotion out of her testimony.
Judy Moran continued, "You have all but destroyed me, ripped out my heart".
Carl Williams was finally called to the witness stand by his defence team.
And it was then that he spoke of the origins of his hatred for the Moran family - a standoff which lay at the heart of Melbourne's underworld war.
Carl Williams spoke of surviving being hit by a baton and shot in the stomach by the Moran brothers, whom he accuses of warning him he was lucky, and that the gangland standoff came down to "who gets who first".
"I had fears for all members of my family," Carl Williams told the court.
Williams spoke about being a drug addict since he was shot in the stomach.
He says he became addicted to crack cocaine, as well as sleeping pills and alcohol, and he says he became paranoid.
The seriousness of the charges against Carl Williams were never in dispute today, the former drug dealer having pleaded guilty to no less than four murders.
But there were some lighter, more bizarre exchanges when he took the stand.
Asked if he had arranged for Jason Moran to be killed by two of his accomplices at a children's football clinic, in front of children, Williams replied that it wasn't part of the plan.
"In a perfect world," he said, "I wouldn't have killed them there", to which Judge Betty King replied:
"In a perfect world, he wouldn't have been killed."
Lawyers for Williams argued that he'd become a changed man since entering prison and that he was a model prisoner.
Williams told the court he wished that none of the gangland murders had ever happened.
Carl Williams is due to be sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court next week.
MARK COLVIN: Daniel Hoare.
Spurned for a blonde bombshell 16 years her junior, Roberta Williams, 37, seethed, swore and had her ex squirming.
And Renata Laureano, 21, Williams' new pen pal and love interest, felt the fury too.
As she arrived with Williams' parents, George and Barb, for the court date, Ms Williams screamed abuse and threats at her.
Looking sloppy, with her hair almost as short as her fuse, the cast-off wife hounded Ms Laureano to the court door and continued the barrage inside.
Williams had boasted about Ms Laureano in a letter to his estranged wife.
"I can still pull 'em even when I'm in jail," he wrote.
But wait, this isn't all. Roberta Williams is converting to Islam.
I just love a good story, don't you?
1 comment:
Mate, is this bad mutha really aka "George Grogan"? I almost read "George Gregan" first time round!
Regards from the Republic.
Post a Comment