John Newman murder: Downfall of a merciless crime lord saved soul of Cabramatta
CONVICTING Phoung Ngo for Australia’s only political assassination of John Newman not only took a killer off the streets, it allowed the crime-ridden suburb of Cabramatta to be reborn.
On the night of September 5, 1994, Cabramatta MP John Newman was shot twice and killed outside his Woods Avenue home.
It was Australia’s first and only political assassination and in the seven years to follow, investigations and court cases would reveal a murky world of organised crime and political intrigue that plagued the western Sydney suburb.
In the mid-nineties Cabramatta was known as the crime capital of Sydney — if not Australia — with 5T members ruling the streets and people dealing and shooting up heroin openly.
Newman was an avid anti-drug and anti-organised crime campaigner, and had been the target of multiple death threats from Asian gangs.
But he had not asked for police protection. Tragically just 10 days earlier, he had asked police to remove security cameras installed at the front of his property.
Those cameras would have captured images of the gunman, but to this day the man who pulled the trigger has never been brought to justice.
Instead there was a mistrial, a hung jury and finally the Supreme Court of NSW convicted Phuong Ngo, a local club owner and political opponent who had run against Newman as an independent in 1991, of ordering the killing in 2001.
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His conviction not only took an evil killer and crime boss off Sydney streets, but it allowed the once crime ridden suburb of Cabramatta to be reborn, said NSW deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas.
Mr Kaldas was a detective-sergeant in the homicide squad in 1994 and eventually led the investigation into the assassination.
Ngo, a sworn political enemy of Newman, was jailed for life with the judge ordering him never to be released.
“In the morning Ngo would sit on the board of the Area Heath Service, go to councils meetings and present a respectable veneer,” Mr Kaldas said.
“At night he sat in his headquarters, the Mekong Club and controlled the 5T gang who were behind most of the heroin flooding southwest Sydney at the time as well as extortion rackets and a fair few murders.”
Mr Kaldas said Cabramatta had turned around in the last decade.
“By ridding the Vietnamese community and Cabramatta of Ngo the area became a colourful piece of multicultural Sydney it is today.
“When Ngo was arrested and charged 100s of people from Cabramatta signed a petition pleading with the judge not to grant him bail, which is an example of the fear he instilled in many.’’
Mr Kaldas said the investigation eventually grew to include more than 50 detectives from Homicide, Special Branch, Asian Crime Squad, the Federal Police and NSW Crime Commission.
Five detectives stuck with it from the night of the murder through to Ngo’s conviction seven years later.
“It was a unique investigation. The victim had a lot of enemies because of his position in society and outspoken views.
“There were dozen of suspects all who had to be ruled out of any involvement in his death. Early on Phuong Ngo was nominated by quite a few people as being responsible for his death.’’
Ngo was eventually convicted after three trials — one aborted, a hung jury and finally a guilty verdict.
He appealed and lost, went to the High Court and lost and there was a judicial inquiry which backed the guilty verdict and commended police on their tenacious effort.
“It was one of the most scrutinised investigations in NSW history,’’ said Mr Kaldas.
“In many ways it was also ground breaking. Not only as the first political assassination but for some of the investigative techniques used.”
The 20th anniversary of John Newman’s death brings up memories many of his close friends would rather forget.
For Mr Newman’s best friend Ken Chapman, recalling the period after his murder is bittersweet. Mr Chapman would spend the next year sitting on Fairfield Council with Ngo.
“It was very hard. A lot of people stood by Phuong Ngo and I think privately they do even to this day,” he said.
“As far as I’m concerned the Labor Party — the internal politics and the infighting — that killed John.”
On the afternoon of Newman’s funeral, businesses closed their shops as a sign of respect, an honour paid to a man whose death would profoundly change the area.
“All of the key changes to Cabramatta came after the inquest into the death of John Newman,’’ he said.
“It was a couple of years later that the government started putting more resources towards the area’s problems both with policing and monitoring of security cameras.
“John should be remembered as a politician who died fighting against drug lords in Cabramatta, trying to prevent overdose deaths and the drug gangs that operated with absolute freedom in our city.”
Emma and Washington Duran, who lived next door to Mr Newman, still keep a photo of the MP on their wall.
“Even today, I still miss John,” Mrs Duran said.
Mr Duran remembers looking out the window on the night of the murder and seeing the street filled with police cars.
“I remember talking to John after people threw a fire bomb at his car.
“I said to him, why don’t you go to Queensland but he said no, let me stay a few more terms here.”
After John Newman’s death, his fiancee Lucy Wang left Australia and returned to China where her father worked as a nuclear scientist, close friend Peter Nagle said.
Mr Nagle said Ms Wang eventually met and married a Beijing-based banker.
“I have been in touch with her on and off over the years,’’ Mr Nagle said.
CABRAMATTA today is a community transformed.
Once known for its street gangs such as the 5T, Australia’s worst heroin epidemic and the country’s first political assassination, in the past 20 years since the death of John Newman Cabramatta has evolved to become a thriving multicultural region— a sought-after food destination and family friendly.
The statistics and policy changes which have seen the streets swept clean of drugs and crime levels plummet tell only part of the story.
A journalist colleague clearly recalls stepping out of a car on their first trip to Cabramatta in 1994 and being shocked at the number of discarded syringes on the nature strip, in what was to all intents and purposes a normal suburban street.
Today, people from all over Sydney travel to Cabramatta for a different sort of hit: to enjoy its great food and vibrant culture.
We’ll see this again on Sunday when tens of thousands of families and friends swarm in for the Cabramatta Moon Festival.
The wonderful celebration of community includes live entertainment, fashion parades, dancing, food and fun including the ever popular eating competitions.
I have been a resident of south western Sydney my entire life. Since becoming the editor of the Fairfield Advance in January, I have had numerous discussions with community leaders and long-time residents about the Cabramatta of old and of today.
With sadness, they talk about the days when people travelled to Cabramatta for drugs, of crime and of their concerns for the future of the region’s young people.
Now, and with great pride, people talk of Cabramatta’s transformation, which was sparked by the work of the community and governments, of their optimism for the future and the many opportunities that exist in this region.
— Luisa Cogno, editor, Fairfield Advance
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