Life and crimes of crazed Brighton siege gunman Yacqub Khayre
THE crazed gunman shot dead by police during a murderous terror act was regarded as a “Man Monis’’ type during his time in jail.
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THE crazed gunman shot dead by police during a murderous terror act was regarded as a “Man Monis’’ type during his time in jail.
Yacqub Khayre, a repeat offender in and out of jail since his teen years, was regarded by prison authorities as a troublesome “goose”.
A refugee in 1991, he had been put in youth detention as a teen and was an inmate on remand accused of being a terrorist by 2009.
He would be acquitted in 2010 of terrorism charges, but two years later was back inside, this time at Port Phillip Prison. It was there he gained the reputation while housed in the Fishburn unit for his behaviour.
Convicted over a brutal Dallas aggravated burglary in 2012, Khayre showed no remorse for his crimes, some that would leave mental scars on his victims.
The Herald Sun has been told the 29-year-old aligned himself with a Middle-Eastern crime family but was not regarded as fearsome.
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A corrections source said Khayre shared similarities with Lindt cafe siege killer Man Haron Monis.
He said both tried to give the appearance of religious devotion but, at heart, were just violent criminals.
“He’s like Monis. That’s his profile,” the source said. “He was an absolute goose. He was a Monis-type idiot.”
Khayre was regarded by staff and other prisoners as a whinger who constantly complained about everything from how the jail was run to the food he was served.
His hostile demeanour would continue at other Victorian prisons.
On February 7, 2014, while in Loddon Prison, he set fire to it and, following his conviction, was given a one-month concurrent jail term and a $217.80 fine.
A year later, on February 21, he did it again, this time at Barwon Prison. A magistrate gave him two months’ jail and a $1511 fine.
But Khayre would still get parole in December, 2016, despite judges previously stating it was unlikely he could be rehabilitated.
“He was a nuisance, high-maintenance,” the source said. “He officer-shopped until he got what he wanted.”
His defiance extended to, on occasions, refusing to appear for morning muster counts.
The source said that, at one stage, Khayre made an enemy of one of the prison system’s longest serving and most dangerous figures.
“He knew how to rub people up the wrong way. He was a no one, honestly.”
Some in the Somali community regarded Khayre as a drug addict and an alcoholic.
The Herald Sun understands community leaders plan to meet to work out how their people can avoid being stained by actions they abhor.
“They’re worried about this not just as Muslims but as a community,” a source said.
Khayre was always considered more bad than radical Islamist until crime agencies suspected his involvement in a terror plot to kill up to 500 military personnel and civilians at Holsworthy army base.
The case against him involved evidence he travelled to Somalia to train at a camp where he may have received weapons training, and seeking a fatwa to carry out the terror plot.
Khayre, and four other co-accused, was facing a maximum life term for preparing a terrorist attack.
When arrested for the Holsworthy Army Barracks plot, Khayre was visited by Islamic prison chaplains. He was told about the responsibilities every prisoner had and given advice on how to be a Muslim in Australian society.
But he, and one other co-accused, walked free from court in mid 2010. He had spent 15 months on remand.
Khayre almost immediately began abusing drugs following his acquittal.
“This is just someone who has gone off their head,’’ said a woman closely associated with those convicted over the Holsworthy plot.
“He was a lost soul. I heard he was on drugs. It’s very, very disappointing what he has done.
“What sort of example are they setting to western society? This is not Islam … to kill an innocent person, and what about that girl he had taken hostage?
“If you go down that road it ends in death or jail.’’
In the 24 hours before Khayre began his siege, he had appeared calm and relaxed as he sat down for evening prayers in a Broadmeadows mosque.
“I saw him on Sunday night and he didn’t seem at all strange or like something was going on,” a long-time friend said.
“We were mates. I used to be really close with him in 2008 but after he was arrested in 2009 we weren’t so close.
“I was so shocked when I saw what happened because it didn’t make any sense. The last message I got from him was wishing me a happy Ramadan and he seemed quite friendly when I spoke to him on Sunday.
“He was buzzing and energised.”
He said Khayre had been working as a bricklayer in recent months and showed no outward signs of radicalisation.
“He wasn’t religiously institutionalised. He never seemed violent and he never said anything that made you think he was,” he said.
“I know this because I’ve seen those that are radicalised in the local area.
“They’ve gone and left mosques because they thought they were too moderate and they have gone elsewhere.
“It is written in the Koran that if you hurt an innocent soul you are hurting the soul of all humanity.”
One of five brothers and sisters, Khayre came to Australia at age three with his grandparents from war-torn Mogadishu via a Kenyan refugee camp. Their parents followed but their father, a former Somali army general, was often absent.
His community described him as one of the “Lost Ones”, a translation of a Somali term given to young men who have difficulty adjusting to life in Australia.
He quickly picked up English, dropped speaking Somali, and went to Gladstone Park High School, dropping out in year 12.
Khayre later told police that converting to Islam saved his life.
Carrying his English-language Koran, he began praying at Preston Mosque before moving to the controversial 8 Blacks prayer centre in an old snooker hall in North Melbourne where he met his Holsworthy co-accused.
Police were said to be “gutted” when Khayre was found not guilty by the Victorian Supreme Court jury of being part of a homegrown jihadi group.
Khayre had assured relatives he had turned a new leaf.
Dahir Mohamed said he and other, older members of the Somali community pleaded with him to turn away from his life of crime.
Mr Mohamed said he wanted the public to know Khayre’s family and friends did not support his terrorist actions.
“Islam is peace, not violence ... no one supports this.’’ he said.
Mr Mohamed grew up with Khayre’s uncle, Ibrahim, in Somalia and remained close with the family in Australia.
A community figure said Khayre’s mother was a good woman, who worked hard as a single mum.
“She was a good mum, raised all the children up by herself,’’ he said.
But after Khayre’s arrest in 2009, Ibrahim said he regretted bringing the family to Australia, and blamed the government for leaving Khayre “out in the cold’’.
‘I pleaded that he must stay in prison’
James Dowling
THE victim of Yacqub Khayre’s terrifying 2012 home invasion is shocked the terrorist was ever granted parole.
The woman — who confronted an armed Khayre when he broke into her Dallas bedroom — said she was never told he had been granted parole or was due for release.
She slammed authorities for not telling her that her violent attacker had been freed in December. But it is understood she had not registered to be informed about his release.
The woman, who has asked not to be named, said she pleaded with the courts to give him a long jail term.
“I specifically said this person should not be out,” she told the Herald Sun.
“He is not fit to be in society. I thought it would be non-negotiable that they would keep him inside until at least June this year. It was clear he was dangerous.”
She came home to find Khayre rifling through her belongings and raised the alarm. Her father restrained him.
She told the court she felt so unsafe in her house she had to move out.
“We were lucky my dad was able to restrain him — others might not have been able to.”
She said she had submitted two long victim impact statements — one for his appeal against his sentence — because she was not happy with the jail term — five years with three-year non-parole period.
“They showed him a lot of leniency during the court case,’’ she said. “It was so hard to get him locked up. We had to prove everything and put in so much effort.”
She was shocked to learn he was the Brighton offender who had been shot dead.
“It is clear they had not taken into consideration what I said in my victim impact statement,” she said.
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