Stuart MacGill’s phone thrown at News Corp office after alleged kidnapping
A stranger in a hoodie threw Stuart MacGill’s mobile phone at the front door of The Sunday Telegraph office in a bizarre twist in the alleged kidnapping of the former cricketer. WHAT WAS ON THE PHONE?
Police & Courts
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When Stuart MacGill was allegedly kidnapped over a failed cocaine deal, the ex-Test cricket star told police his captors took his mobile phone before forcing him into a car.
On Monday, someone delivered the spin bowling star’s mobile phone to me.
But in trying to be discreet, the person making the delivery triggered a series of alarm bells that turned it into a police incident and caused News Corp’s Surry Hills headquarters to be evacuated.
An unidentified courier — who had a hoodie covering his face — delivered the phone to The Sunday Telegraph’s Holt St office shortly before 6am.
The phone was inside an envelope that said “give to police”. That was inside a bigger envelope, which was addressed to me.
The phone is now in the hands of police, who attended Holt St on Tuesday to seize the phone and take a statement.
There were thousands of text messages from MacGill’s family, friends, business associates and professional cricketers — including their contact details.
Plus there was a photo roll featuring more than 1000 of MacGill’s personal snaps.
In the moments before making the delivery, the courier walked up to the entry of the building and threw the package in the direction of the glass doors.
Security saw this from the other side of the glass and thought: “That’s a bomb.”
They called in the NSW Police bomb squad to examine it.
They were soon joined by uniformed officers from Surry Hills Police Station.
Police and security then ordered the complete evacuation of everyone who was working an early-morning shift in the five-storey building.
The police opened the package and found there was nothing dangerous inside.
It contained a Samsung Galaxy phone.
The oversized white envelope said “Telegraph” at the top and was addressed to me.
On the back of the package: “From: Stuart MacGill”.
Inside was a smaller envelope that had “Stuart MacGill’s phone” written on the front.
On the back of the smaller envelope someone had written: “Give to police.”
Inside that was MacGill’s mobile phone, which had been placed in a plastic sandwich bag.
The phone looked to have been gripped by a napkin — which was still in the envelope — in what appeared to be an attempt by the sender to avoid leaving fingerprints on the device.
Within a few hours I began receiving calls from the NSW Police hierarchy, who had been alerted to the bomb threat via their internal reporting systems.
I arranged for the police to come to Holt St to collect the phone. They took a statement from me.
Detectives will now be examining the phone.
Its contents will almost certainly become evidence in the case of the men charged with kidnapping MacGill outside his Cremorne apartment on April 14.
They include the brother of MacGill’s girlfriend, Marino Sotiropoulos, nightclub owner Son Minh “Sammy” Nguyen and brothers Richard and Frederick Schaaf.
WHAT WAS ON THE PHONE?
In the hours before Stuart MacGill was allegedly kidnapped over a failed cocaine deal, he reached out to the man he believed had put him in the crosshairs of a drug syndicate.
“I’m out of time mate. I don’t understand why you would deliberately do this to me. I was just trying to help,” police will allege the ex-Test spin bowler wrote in a text message at 4.32pm on April 14.
The text message was sent to a man MacGill has told police was known as “Sonny”, a friend and frequent patron at his Neutral Bay restaurant, Aristotle’s.
But when Sonny allegedly stole 2kg of cocaine from an accused crime syndicate — after being introduced to one of its members by MacGill — the ex-cricket star told police he was held responsible.
Police have said MacGill had no knowledge of the drug deal and has not committed any crime.
Four people have been charged with kidnapping and bashing MacGill, who told police he was forced to strip naked in a shed on a Bringelly farm after 8pm on April 14.
Sonny’s whereabouts are unknown. Neither MacGill nor his girlfriend, Maria O’Meagher — the owner of Aristotle’s, which the couple announced this week was closing down — could not be reached on Saturday.
MacGill had Sonny’s phone number saved in the contacts of his phone under the name “Sunshine”, police will allege.
One of the men charged with kidnapping MacGill and supplying the 2kg of cocaine to Sonny is Marino Sotiropoulos, 43. Sotiropoulos is the brother of Ms O’Meagher.
Police allege Sotiropoulos and others demanded MacGill pay up to $150,000 after Sonny disappeared.
The 44-Test veteran told detectives he introduced Sonny and Sotiropoulos on April 6 or 7 and had no idea why they wanted to meet.
A police fact sheet tendered to court said Sotiropoulos turned up at MacGill’s Cremorne home about noon on April 14, where he allegedly told the cricketer he was “f...king dead” because he had vouched for Sonny who had taken off without paying $660,000 for the cocaine.
Police will allege MacGill made two attempts to call “Sunshine”, at 1.01pm and 1.07pm, but the phone was off, and then sent the text message at 4.32pm.
There are several other clues as to Sonny’s identity and who knew him.
MacGill contacted several people in an attempt to get a phone number for Sonny, police will allege. At 5.39pm MacGill texted a Mosman based associate, who responded with a different number for Sonny and wrote back: “That’s the only one I have.”
The Sunday Telegraph’s calls to the man this week were not returned. MacGill texted another contact at 6.04pm: “Hi mate. Can you please send me any numbers you have for sunny? Even old ones.”
The person responded with yet another number and wrote: “That’s all I have but he never responded.”
THE SEARCH FOR MACGILL’S PHONE
Police began the pursuit of MacGill’s phone on April 22.
According to a set of police facts tendered to court, detectives applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a warrant to intercept MacGill’s phone.
The warrant also allowed the officers to examine the “stored communications” on the phone, the document said.
Police said in the document that “analysis of the stored communications confirmed details” of conversations between MacGill, Sotiropoulos and others leading up to the alleged kidnapping of the cricketer. What police saw on the phone was “consistent with the version of events supplied by MacGill”, the document said.
On April 23, an undercover police informant began contacting Sotiropoulos, the document said.
The undercover recorded several meetings with Sotiropoulos, including one at 2pm that day at Walsh Bay.
The undercover “asked for MacGill’s phone to be returned”, the document said. One of Sotiropoulos’ associates at the meeting asked: “Have we still got that?”, the document said.
“Sotiropoulos replied that they did,” the police document said. They told the undercover that arrangements would be made for the phone to be returned to MacGill.
MacGill told police the last he heard of the phone was inside the shed on the farm at Bringelly.
One of his alleged kidnappers, described as an “Islander male” asked MacGill for the “password or Pin code to access the mobile phone” which the cricketer “supplied”.
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