Gangland matriarch Judy Moran yet to submit mercy bid, looks set to die behind bars

Melbourne’s most notorious gangland matriarch Judy Moran was preparing a bid to leave prison due to her declining health — but the Herald Sun can reveal the ailing killer could now die behind bars.

Melbourne gangland matriarch Judy Moran could die behind bars after not making an application for freedom as indicated.

Gangland matriarch Judy Moran appears set to serve out her murder sentence after not yet going ahead with a petition of mercy bid.

It was revealed last year that 80-year-old Moran and supporters were preparing an extraordinary freedom plea based on her declining health.

But the Herald Sun has been told that, 12 months later, the application has not been submitted.

Judy Moran leaves the Supreme Court after being found guilty of murder in 2011.

Moran is serving a maximum 26-year prison term for the murder of her brother-in-law Desmond “Tuppence” Moran in 2009.

Prison sources say her quality of life has steadily deteriorated in the almost 16 years since she was arrested and charged over the killing.

Moran uses a wheelchair and was in late-2023 taken to hospital in a serious condition with what was suspected of being a liver issue.

One source said her health had become dire and she was virtually bedridden behind the walls of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park.

“She was bad a few months ago,” that source said.

Moran is a minimum of five years away from release, based on her earliest non-parole period of 21 years.

To succeed in any future application, Moran would have to prove she was suffering a terminal illness and that death would occur soon, or that she is bedridden or incapacitated.

Such a petition would need to show her medical state had deteriorated significantly and that release would bring significant benefit because of the availability of facilities for her care outside of prison.

Judy Moran is a minimum of five years away from release. Picture: Andrew Brownbill

It would then be up to the Attorney-General to evaluate it and make recommendations to the Premier about whether it should be granted by the Governor.

Gangland warfare and her own actions eliminated the family members close to Moran in the space of nine bloody years.

Mark Moran, the son she had with Sydney underworld figure Les Cole, was shot dead outside his Aberfeldie home in 2000 in an ambush ordered by Carl Williams.

In 2003, her son Jason was shot dead beside mate Pasquale Barbaro at an Essendon junior footy clinic in what was another Williams-orchestrated crime.

Judy at the scene of her son Jason’s shooting in 2003. Picture: Supplied

Judy’s husband Lewis, the father of Jason, was gunned down at the Brunswick Club in 2004.

Five years later, Lewis’ brother Desmond died in a shooting ambush at an Ascot Vale cafe.

Judy was arrested soon after and later proven to have ordered associate Geoffrey “Nuts” Armour to eliminate her brother-in-law, widely known as “Tuppence”.

Originally published as Gangland matriarch Judy Moran yet to submit mercy bid, looks set to die behind bars