Images released of makeshift weapons used to attack Tony Mokbel at Barwon Prison
Footage of the moment Tony Mokbel was viciously attacked at Barwon prison has been labelled too graphic to be publicly released, but pictures of the makeshift shiv can be seen here.
VIC News
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A fork and sharpened wires were used to make three deadly shivs used to attack underworld figure Tony Mokbel in Barwon Prison’s exercise yard.
Photos show the makeshift weapons that Teira Bennett and Eldea Teuira wielded to inflict multiple blows to Mokbel on February 11.
Bennett, 21, and Teuira, 22, pleaded guilty in the County Court this morning to intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence.
CCTV, played in court, captured the “quick, frenzied attack” as the two prisoners approached Mokbel walking towards them just before 4pm.
Without warning, Bennett punches Mokbel to the head with such force, the drug kingpin falls to the ground unconscious.
Teuira then jumps on a defenceless Mokbel and stabs him multiple times, before Bennett kicks him in the head three times.
Another prisoner is stabbed as he tries to defend Mokbel.
Other prisoners and officers can be seen rushing towards the yard, surrounding Mokbel and forcing his attackers to the ground.
Judge Liz Gaynor said the footage was “too graphic” to release publicly.
Prosecutor Kristie Churchill told the court it was Bennett’s 21st birthday and just over an hour earlier Mokbel had attended a gathering to celebrate the occasion.
Mokbel, 53, was seen on CCTV handing Bennett a piece of paper at the event. It was not revealed what the note said.
Ms Churchill said the attack came a day after a Herald Sun article called Mokbel an enforcer in the high-security prison who had disrupted an extortion racket run by Pacific Islander inmates.
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During the attack, she said Bennett yelled: “You are not an enforcer. This is what you get for talking to the screws, you dog.”
She said Mokbel was so severely injured he underwent emergency surgery and was placed in a coma.
“It was very likely without swift medical intervention he would have died,” Ms Churchill said.
Mokbel suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.
He did not provide a statement to police over the attack.
Bennett and Teuira have also pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury to the prisoner who came to Mokbel’s aid and was stabbed once in the ribs.