Abdul Elraoui: Mincha farmer accused of shooting would-be thief twice

An elderly farmer in northern Victoria is accused of shooting a would-be thief twice before following her blood trail to hunt her down.

A 71-year-old man is accused of shooting a young woman with an assault rifle twice and following her blood trail to her friends in an effort to protect his rural property.

An elderly Mincha farmer is accused of shooting a would-be thief twice before following her blood trail to hunt her down.

Abdul Elraoui, 71, was expected to appear at Melbourne County Court for a plea hearing on Friday but suffered a suspected heart attack before his case, delaying it for four months.

Judge Gerard Mullaly said he was not comfortable continuing the hearing given it was only four days after a 67-year-old mother dropped dead in the witness stand while testifying for her son.

“He may look healthy but so did the witness before tragedy struck,” Judge Mullaly said.

Court documents said Elraoui was living alone on a large rural property at Mincha, 98km north of Bendigo, where the alleged attack occurred.

The then 69-year-old told police he had been targeted multiple times by thieves in the months leading up to June 2019.

But when 21-year-old Hannah Meharry, and 20-year-old Tyler Martin and Isiah Nelson allegedly trespassed on his land on Tuesday June 11 Elraoui was said to have taken the law into his own hands.

The court heard the group stopped at the Micha property at 3am.

Mr Nelson cut the padlock with bolt cutters and opened the low metal front gate at Elraoui’s property before reversing the station wagon 120m up the driveway with the lights off.

Elraoui allegedly heard the group and armed himself with a loaded 0.233 Remington calibre mini-14 model semiautomatic assault rifle and stormed towards the young woman.

Elraoui was allegedly crouched on the footpath holding his firearm hidden in darkness when the court heard he aimed at the light of the woman’s phone and shot her twice — in the arm and back.

The 21-year-old allegedly screamed in pain and dropped her phone before she ran to the group’s car and they fled the scene.

Elraoui told police he checked the ground for a blood trail before heading towards the station wagon.

He allegedly shot at the car twice as it sped away.

Court documents said the group lost control of the getaway vehicle and it collided with a channel in the road.

Stumbling from the crash Ms Meharry knocked on the door of a neighbour, who called triple-zero as she collapsed.

The neighbour reportedly waited until Elraoui left the station wagon before driving the two 20-year-olds and their bleeding friend to police and paramedics.

Court documents said Ms Meharry had a 2cm deep gunshot wound to her left arm, and three wounds to her back each the size of a 20c coin, with shrapnel removed from the injury.

Court documents said Elraoui later called his son and told him he fired shots at a group of people he believed had recently stolen from him.

The 69-year-old surrendered himself to police at 4.20am.

A search of his home allegedly found the unregistered rifle and more than 100 bullets.

Court documents said Elraoui lost his firearms licence in 2018 after a court found he failed to secure a longarm correctly.

Ms Meharry will appear at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on July 29 facing trespassing charges.

Mr Martin was convicted and fined $1200 while Mr Nelson was convicted and given an 18-month community corrections order.

Elraoui was charged with intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury, reckless conduct endangering life, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, and using a firearm while a prohibited person.

Elraoui will reappear in Melbourne’s County Court on Wednesday October 6.