Abdul Elraoui: Mincha farmer shoots would-be-thief

A Central Victorian farmer “at risk of sudden death” shot a would-be thief twice, but his lawyer said the elderly man was not a “gangster”.

An elderly Mincha farmer shot a would-be thief twice before following her blood trail to hunt her down in the darkness.

Abdul Elraoui, 71, appeared in Melbourne County Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to shooting a young woman twice after she and two others allegedly tried to steal from his rural property in June 2019.

His barrister Cameron Marshall said his client’s behaviour was unlike the typical “gangster like behaviour” of many criminal injury cases, as the shooting was a reaction of an anxious, isolated old man feeling threatened.

The court heard Elraoui was living alone on a large rural property at Mincha, 98km north of Bendigo, which had sheds, miscellaneous items and shipping containers scattered around the property.

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 took the law into his own hands.

The court heard the group pulled up in Nelson’s blue Holden Station wagon and 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.

“Go along with what he says. Just say if anything we are lost and need directions,” Nelson told his co-accused.

Elraoui was woken up by the sound of rummaging, and armed himself with a loaded 0.233 Remington calibre mini-14 model semiautomatic assault rifle.

The court heard that from just 5m away he aimed at the light of the woman’s phone and shot her twice — in the arm and back.

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

Elraoui told police he checked the ground for a blood trail and tracked it back towards the station wagon.

He 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 Mincha-Canary Island Rd.

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

The neighbour had to wait until Elraoui left the station wagon before driving the young trio 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.

Elraoui later called his son and told him he fired shots at a group of suspected thieves, and at 4.20am the 69-year-old surrendered himself to police.

A search of his home 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.

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

It is understood Ms Meharry will appear at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on October 11 facing trespassing charges.

Elraoui was expected to appear at Melbourne County Court for a plea hearing in July 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 Bendigo mother dropped dead in the witness stand while testifying for her son.

When he appeared on Wednesday Judge Mullaly said medical tests had concluded “he was at high risk of sudden death”.

Mr Marshall said his client suffered from anxiety, which partially explained his violent response to the strangers on his remote property.

He said the immigrant, who was separated from his family when he escaped the civil war in Lebanon, suffered from “deep seated isolation” on the rural property.

Elraoui pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering life, recklessly and intentionally causing injury and being a prohibited person with a firearm.

He will reappear in the County Court on November 10.