Guilty Plea In Moran Slaying
The Age
Tuesday February 27, 2007
A PIECE in the puzzle of Melbourne's gangland has been put into place with a guilty plea to murder yesterday.
Lewis Moran, 58, was drinking with his mate Herbert Wrout at their favourite watering hole in Brunswick in 2004 when two masked men burst in.It was 6.30pm on March 31 and Moran, who stood so he could see people entering, suspected what was coming."I think we're off (about to be killed) here," he said before being gunned down inside Sydney Road's Brunswick Club. Wrout was seriously wounded but survived.It was later alleged that multi-millionaire drug boss Tony Mokbel, who skipped bail last year, had offered $150,000 to have Moran killed. Moran was convicted posthumously of four drug-trafficking charges.Beamed from Barwon Prison yesterday into Melbourne Magistrates Court via video link, the heavy-set shape of Noel William Faure sat motionless in inmate's green. Only the occasional blink - and an acknowledgement that he could hear the proceedings - betrayed the live feed.What was expected to be a brief mention hearing before Faure, 52, and co-accused Evangelos Goussis contested the Moran murder charges next month took a dramatic turn when prosecutor Andrew Tinney announced there had been "some other developments".Faure's barrister, Wayne Toohey, confirmed his client had instructed him that he wished to plead guilty to murder and to intentionally causing serious injury to Wrout and the case would proceed directly to the Supreme Court. Anthony Brand, for Goussis, said a QC had been briefed to represent his client next month on charges of murder and attempting to murder Wrout.Asked by magistrate Jane Patrick how he pleaded, Faure entered two guilty pleas. The link to Barwon Prison was severed and Faure vanished, but he'll reappear on March 8 in the Supreme Court.
© 2007 The Age