Judy Moran rules prison through threats and intimidation, court told

PRISON authorities believe underworld matriarch Judy Moran has taken on a Queen Bea role in jail and rules the prison through threats and intimidation.

Judy Moran leaves the Supreme Court after she is found guilty of murder.

PRISON authorities believe underworld matriarch Judy Moran has taken on a Queen Bea role at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and rules the prison through threats and intimidation.

The ominous role of Moran emerged today at the Supreme Court, where she lost an interim bid to be returned to the prison unit from which she was removed after a fight broke out on April 23.

The bloody brawl started in Ms Moran’s solo Margaret unit between two other prisoners, one of whom later attempted self harm.

Ms Moran, who is wheelchair bound, was not directly involved in the fight and claims she was knitting at the time.

But prison bosses believe she has “an unhealthy influence” over other prisoners and moved her because she received large number of visits from inmates “she had some control over”.

Prison authorities say she is “well connected” and other inmates had complained of being “threatened by her or on her behalf”.

Moran appeared via video link today, at one point covering herself in a large pink shawl, and shook her head as Justice Anthony Cavanough refused to immediately return her to the unit.

The unit was large and designed to accommodate her wheelchair and featured a kitchen where she could cook her own meals.

She has now been segregated from other prisoners and removed to the Swan unit, and receives prepared prison meals which her lawyer John Ribbands said did not meet “her dietary requirements”.

Mr Ribbands said Moran had been denied procedural fairness wanted to be returned to her unit while the decision was reviewed.

But Justice Cavanough said he was not going to dictate to prison authorities how they managed inmates.

Moran was jailed for a minimum 21 years in August 2011 after she was found her guilty of arranging the murder if Des “Tuppence” Moran, her brother-in-law.

The matter will return to court for a further directions hearing on June 2.