How killer Mark Dayney and prostitute Peta Lorang-Goubran conspired to rob Mark ‘Zeb’ Spencer
IT was meant to be a simple robbery but it all went horribly wrong. The inside story on how ice addict Mark ‘Zeb’ Spencer was murdered in his Gold Coast home.
Crime and Court
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IT is 4 o’clock in the morning and Mark “Zeb” Spencer has a choice to make.
He can continue his ice bender by striking the lighter poised below his glass pipe or embrace the brunette standing in front of him.
His former lover Peta Lorang-Goubran has turned up to his house at Coomera on Queensland's Gold Coast after Mr Spencer answered an online ad offering sex.
The real motive in setting up the fake Craiglist account was to get into the homes of “customers” and rob them.
For Lorang-Goubran and Mr Spencer, the chance meeting in the early hours of October 1, 2014 was a trip down memory lane.
Mr Spencer decided to lean forward and give the prostitute a hug.
“I went to the lounge with Zeb ... he went to light his ice pipe but he stopped and asked for a hug,” Lorang-Goubran told the Southport Magistrates Court early last year at a two-day committal hearing for Mark Vincent Dayney, who was yesterday found guilty of murdering Mr Spencer.
MARK SPENCER FOUND DEAD AT COOMERA HOME
That’s when she said she felt Mr Spencer’s body jolt. She told the court she stood to see Dayney with a black T-shirt wrapped around his head like a balaclava.
“When I jumped up I believe Mark (Dayney) hit him again,” said Lorang-Goubran, who in August 2016 pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing Spencer, among other offences.
“I was in shock. I was looking at both of them. I didn’t notice any injuries. I jumped up and panicked and ran out of the room.”
As Mr Spencer and Dayney wrestled, and she hid outside, Lorang-Goubran said she heard muffled voices.
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Police allege Dayney grabbed a baseball bat and felled Mr Spencer with a blow to the left cheek, shattering his facial bones and knocking him unconscious.
Mr Spencer’s housemate told the court at the committal hearing what he saw.
“I saw someone in a mask hit Zeb once with some sort of pole,” the housemate said.
“I yelled something out and we both froze.
“Then he went out of sight around the house. I saw him get in the car. I realised there was no numberplate on the car and they took off.
“He got into the passenger side and drove off. There was a woman behind the steering wheel.”
The housemate said he reached out to check Mr Spencer’s pulse but he could not find one.
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SES VOLUNTEERS SCOUR COOMERA PROPERTY FOR CLUES
He said Mr Spencer was bleeding so profusely and had so much facial damage he could only perform chest compressions after he called emergency services. Mr Spencer never recovered.
At the committal hearing, Lorang-Goubran said she dated Mr Spencer for five weeks after meeting in November 2013. He would drive her to the Viper Room in Brisbane and to sex jobs.
But when the relationship ended Lorang-Goubran said Mr Spencer, 37, struggled to cope. He would appear unannounced at her Gold Coast home or park ominously across the road, at least once when Dayney, whom she had met in March 2014, was at her house.
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It didn’t take long for the 28-year-old Dayney to move in with her.
Another man who lived with Lorang-Goubran, told the court the trio would joke about ripping people off who responded to ads on Craigslist.
“Yeah, there was a bit of a laugh but that’s about it. Nothing further was said.”
Lorang-Goubran said she later created a Craigslist profile because she thought Dayney had been meeting up with other sex workers behind her back.
“I set it up in hopes of catching him being dishonest with other women … trying to catch him out,” she said.
“I responded to anyone who sounded like Mr Dayney.”
By October 2014, Dayney is alleged to have successfully robbed a man who replied to one of Lorang-Goubran’s online ads offering drugs.
Police allege it was not long after the first robbery that Mr Spencer responded to Lorang-Goubran’s disguised Craigslist ad without knowing who he was really talking to.
Lorang-Goubran said it was Dayney’s idea to message Mr Spencer and go to his home.
She said she drove Dayney to the house. She also claimed a baseball bat she used as protection on jobs was in her car.
At the committal hearing, she said she never saw Dayney take the baseball bat into the house.
“There was no discussion of any violence,” she said.
“I was told to drive there. He asked me where the drugs were kept.”
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