CCTV allegedly captured accused killers torching car used in EastLink hit

A hidden camera allegedly captured two accused killers torched a stolen car used in the EastLink execution of Paul Virgona.

A hidden camera perched in a tree allegedly captured the moment two accused killers torched a stolen car used in the EastLink execution of fruiterer Paul Virgona.

The motion-activated security camera was installed by a builder on a branch opposite his construction site in Jaxlee Close, Mooroolbark to capture would-be thieves.

But instead, police allege it showed where Aaron Ong and Joshua Rider’s rendezvous point was before the shooting on November 9. 2019.

And also where they went to torch the stolen Mercedes afterwards.

The footage was this week played to the jury as key evidence in the trial of Mr Ong, 37, in Victoria’s Supreme Court.

Prosecutor Mark Gibson told the court the arrival of a VW Amarok in the street at 11.53pm – less than three hours before the 2.20am shooting – activated the camera, which sent a notification to the phone of builder, Hayden Long.

Aaron Ong has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Paul Virgona was shot dead during the highway execution.

“You’d appreciate that builders may have a concern that items might go missing on a construction site, be stolen, and therefore this particular builder set up a camera over the road to capture such a thing,” Mr Gibson said.

“He happened to place the camera in a tree over the road, which was not easily seen, affixed to a branch.”

When Mr Long looked at the live camera view, he saw the Amarok being parked in the driveway of the house he was building, with a Mercedes following closely behind.

It was the only house on the street at that point.

At 11.57pm, Mr Gibson said both men were seen leaving the street in the Mercedes.

The camera next captures Mr Long attending the street and taking a photo of the suspicious Amarok parked in the driveway at 1.46am, which he then goes to Mooroolbark police station and shows to police.

After going to police, Mr Long drives back past the property at 2.26am where he finds the Amarok still there and leaves.

Eight minutes later, he received another notification, Mr Gibson said, showing the Mercedes returning to the street and being set alight in the paddock.

He called the police to report what he had seen from the camera.

An explosion could be heard on the footage, with a bright flash, indicating the moment the Mercedes was allegedly set alight in a paddock, before two men could be seen running and jumping into a nearby Amarok and accelerating off.

The Amarok collided with a give-way sign on the Mountain Highway in Bayswater.

With an alert put out across police radios about the Amarok, two eagle-eyed officers in a patrol car soon after observed it at the intersection of the Burwood Highway and Ferntree Gully Rd.

At 3.11am, they began following the utility as it drove along Ferntree Gully Rd.

In police radio conversations played in court, the officers confirmed they were following the Amarok.

“Are you in pursuit?” they were asked.

“Negative,” the officer responded, saying the car was “driving normally at the moment”.

But that quickly changed, the court heard, with it later running a red light and reaching speeds of up to 150km/h, once the police activated the lights and sirens.

The Amarok then collided with a give-way sign on the Mountain Highway in Bayswater, with the two accused last seen fleeing on foot and jumping over a fence into Marie Wallace Bayswater Park.

Mr Ong has pleaded not guilty to murder.

His lawyer Mark Gumbleton told the court the police “got the wrong bloke”.

Mr Rider’s case is being dealt with separately at a later date.

The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, continues.