Judy Moran’s extraordinary plea for freedom push backed by Mick Gatto
Gangland matriarch Judy Moran has enlisted the help of Melbourne identity Mick Gatto as she pleads for an early release from prison amid reports she is bedridden and has “lost her quality of life”.
Police & Courts
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Jailed gangland matriarch Judy Moran has made an extraordinary plea for freedom in a petition of mercy push backed by Mick Gatto.
Moran is serving a minimum 21 years in prison for the 2009 murder of her brother-in-law Desmond “Tuppence” Moran.
Sources say the 79-year-old is bedridden and has “lost her quality of life” at maximum security prison Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
Moran has enlisted the help of Mr Gatto who is behind her petition of mercy, meaning she could be released from prison on the grounds of poor health.
The Melbourne identity told the Herald Sun he had been contacted by Moran some time ago and immediately agreed to assist with her application.
He said he was “funding it a bit” and reached out to lawyers on her behalf.
Moran’s entire immediate family was wiped out as drug lord Carl Williams wreaked havoc in a bloody four-year campaign of violence.
“Anyone who’s been through what she’s gone through deserves to be helped,” Mr Gatto said.
“She pretty much hasn’t got very long to go.
“I’d like to help her out if I can. She reached out to me for help and how could I not.”
Prominent Melbourne lawyer George Defteros, who has represented Moran in the past, said there was no intention to take the matter back before a court for appeal.
Mr Defteros, who said he had no role in the petition push, said it was his understanding that the release was being sought on medical grounds.
It comes as Moran was rushed to St Vincent’s hospital in December last year after becoming seriously ill, believed to be suffering from a liver ailment.
For her application to be successful, Moran would need to prove she is suffering from a terminal illness and death is to occur soon or she is bedridden or incapacitated.
The petition would also need to show that Moran’s medical state had deteriorated significantly since her sentence was imposed, her release would bring significant benefit to her and her family and there would be adequate facilities for her care on the outside.
The granting of a petition of mercy in Victoria is rare but can be done.
The Attorney-General would be the first person to consider it and make recommendations to the Premier about whether the governor should exercise it.
The governor then acts on the advice of the Premier on whether they grant the application or not.
Mr Gatto, who has known Moran for more than 50 years, has a long connection to the family.
He was an ally of her husband and two sons, who were all casualties of Williams’ turn-of-the-century rampage.
Her second husband, Lewis, was shot dead at the Brunswick Club in March, 2004, by a hit team who also wounded his mate, Bert Wrout.
That murder came eight days after Mr Gatto fatally shot dead Williams henchman Andrew Veniamin at a Carlton restaurant.
Mr Gatto was later acquitted by a Supreme Court jury on the grounds of self-defence.
One of her sons, Jason, died alongside his mate Pasquale Barbaro in a 2003 contract killing carried out at an Auskick clinic in Essendon.
Jason’s older brother, Mark, had been shot dead three years earlier in a still-unsolved gangland murder at Aberfeldie.
Moran’s estranged first husband Johnny Cole was murdered in a 1982 Sydney underworld murder.
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