Victorian criminal Lloyd Murrell sentenced for role in shocking crimes in Illawarra, western NSW

A notorious offender serving a hefty sentence for terrifying armed crimes in Victoria has learnt his fate for his involvement in the events surrounding the death of Illawarra drug trafficker Saso Ristevski.

The face of Victorian criminal Lloyd Anthony Murrell has been revealed for the first time after he was sentenced in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday.

A Victorian criminal‘s tenure behind bars has been extended until the end of the decade after he was sentenced on Tuesday for his role in a botched robbery in which a well-known Illawarra crime figure was shot dead.

Lloyd Anthony Murrell was present when Ristevski – a convicted drug trafficker – was killed outside his parent’s Lake Heights home near Wollongong in September, 2011.

Ristevski, 37, was shot by an unknown man shortly after he and another man – who was referred to in court by the pseudonym Green – beat him over the head.

Murrell is not accused of killing Ristevski.

The 52-year-old, who also goes by the name Saner, old sat in a video link suite Goulburn jail as he was sentenced in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday for six charges relating to the shocking event as well as a terrifying robbery in western NSW a month prior.

Murrell, who is serving a 17 and a half year sentence from a Victorian court for “appalling crimes” in Ballarat and Melbourne between December 2010 and November 2011, previously pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter, take and detain in company with the intent to get advantage, two counts of armed robbery in company, damage property by five and assault with intent to rob in company.

The court heard Murrell and an unknown man were contacted by a fourth man to go to Ristevski‘s home to “find out where the money is”.

The shocking incident occurred on Barina Ave, Lake Heights in September, 2011.

Murrell, Green and the unknown man went to the Barina Ave address on the evening of Wednesday, September 28, 2011, and attacked Ristevski with the latter two striking him over the head with a stick and a metal pole.

Ristevski’s parents began screaming with his mother yelling she was calling the police while his father armed himself with a mattock.

Murrell struck the victim’s car with a pole as the trio ran from the scene.

The court heard during the chaos, the unidentified third man fatally shot Ristevski.

Judge Nicole Noman said Murrell was not responsible for the wounds sustained by Ristevski, or the gun shot, but she added his DNA was located on the victim’s body.

Saso Ristevski was shot dead by an unknown man outside his parent’s Lake Heights home.

The court heard the other chilling crime occurred three hours west of Dubbo on Sunday, August 27, 2011 when Murrell, Green and another man kidnapped the manager of Cobar Bowling and Golf Club following an armed home invasion.

The criminals restrained him with cable ties and duct tape before using his $30,000 car to drive to the club shortly before closing time and pillage the place.

Two female staff were tied up alongside their manager with the court hearing Murrell menaced to one of them to “stay calm and you won’t be hurt”.

More than $80,000 was stolen and more than $34,000 worth of damage caused at the venue.

The trio used the manager’s car to flee the scene to a nearby van before they torched the victim’s vehicle.

Lloyd Murrell and two other men stole more than $80,000 from the Cobar club. Picture: Google Maps

The court heard Green disclosed Murrell’s involvement to detectives which led to the latter assaulting him and labelling him a “dog” after they were “for some inexplicable reason” placed in the same prisoner transport van in 2018.

“Attacking his former associate for assisting police reflects a lack of remorse at that time,“ Judge Noman said.

Murrell was sentenced to a total of 22 years and three months jail with a non-parole period of 17 and a half years for both robberies.

The sentence takes into account the time spent in custody for the offending in Victoria with his soonest release date pushed back three and a half years to April, 2029.