Amirah Droudis: Partner Man Monis took out insurance policy on alleged murder property, court hears
LESS than a fortnight before his girlfriend allegedly murdered a woman at “his bidding”, Man Monis took out a $150,000 insurance policy, a court heard.
NSW
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LESS than a fortnight before his girlfriend murdered a woman at “his bidding”, Lindt cafe gunman Man Monis took out a $150,000 insurance policy over the property where the frenzied stabbing took place, a court heard yesterday.
The Supreme Court has also been told during pre-trial submissions for murder accused Amirah Droudis that she and Monis forced her “desperately sick mother” to appear in a clip apologising for statements she made to police about the murder.
The victim is a 30-year-old woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, but was at the Werrington Park apartment which Monis sub-letted on April 21, 2013.
Droudis has pleaded not guilty to murdering the woman, who was stabbed 18 times and then had her body set alight.
The Crown will allege at the judge alone trial that Monis took out an insurance policy worth $150,000 over the home and contents of the second storey apartment, which included cover for flood damage.
The court heard yesterday that the Crown case is that Monis knew there would soon “be a fire” at the apartment and planned to make a claim on the policy after the murder.
It was also his plan, the court heard, to then “concoct a story for the killing, that an intruder had broken into the unit ... killed the deceased and then set fire to it to cover his tracks.”
It will be alleged that a few days after Monis took out the policy, Droudis purchased a similar plan to protect her rental property in Croydon in order to “deflect suspicion” off her boyfriend.
Senior Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC said that eight months after the murder, Monis “extracted an apology from [Droudis’] mother about what she had told police”, and that Droudis had been “prepared to put extreme pressure on her desperately sick mother” to say sorry.
On Monday, Mr Tedeschi told the court that Monis had attempted to join two chapters of the Rebels bikie gang in order to solicit someone to murder the woman, but his “amateurish” and “outlandish” manner led members to think he was a police plant.
Droudis’s barrister Mark Ierace SC told the court that Monis “took steps to organise a contract killing.”
“We don’t know if ultimately he succeeded in finding an intermediary ... a lover, an associate, a disciple or a combination, or some other way entirely,” Mr Ierace said.
The Crown has alleged the murder of the woman was “brutal and ritualistic” and the use of fire connected to Monis’ belief that God uses fire as a way of “exacting vengeance for wrongdoings.”
But Mr Ierace said that the killer’s plan may have been to kill the woman inside the unit, not outside it, and that the repeated stabs may have been “to kill quickly in order to silence her” as she was screaming.
“[The killer] carried out the instructions to set the body on fire ... not successful in destroying [Monis’] apartment but successful enough to cause smoke damage,” he said.
The pre-trial hearing continues today before Justice Peter Johnson.
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