Love Machine shooter says ‘dad told me to do it’

A man accused of killing two people during a shooting at Love Machine nightclub says his underworld figure dad ordered him to fire the “warning shots”.

An accused killer has claimed his underworld figure father demanded he fire “warning shots” outside Love Machine nightclub after his younger brother was kicked out by security hours earlier.

Jacob Elliott, 21, took to the stand at his Supreme Court murder trial on Thursday, telling the jury he’d cowered to his late father, Nabil Maghnie, who’d ordered him to carry out the revenge attack.

“He’s not someone that you say no to,” he said.

“He said ‘get two hotties (stolen cars) ready, I want you to let off some warning shots at the front of the club’.”

Mr Elliott said his father was a violent and intimidating man, claiming his concerns about carrying out the shooting were ignored.

“I asked him if he can get someone else to do it (and) that I don’t feel comfortable doing it,” he said.

“He said something like shut the f--k up and get ready ... basically just dismissed what I said.”

Underworld figure Nabil Maghnie was gunned down in Epping in 2020.

Maghnie, who was considered one of the most dangerous figures in the city’s underworld, was shot dead in Epping in January 2020 with his murder remaining unsolved.

As a teenager, Mr Elliott said he’d been abused by his father and recalled an incident where he was asked to bring steroids out to him while he waited outside.

“I went to hand it to him but he was on the phone ... so I jumped in the car (and) waited for him to finish,” he said.

“He got in the driver’s seat, and he just hit (and) punched me on my chin and just started yelling at me ... he just started telling me when ‘I tell you to f--king do something, do what I say c--t’.”

Security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani was killed in the Love Machine shooting.

Patron Richard Arow was also killed.

Mr Elliott described his father as a regular drug user who went days without sleep and was “extremely paranoid”.

“It was regular (drug use) ... sometimes he’d go consistently every day for two or three weeks,” he said.

In the days before the fatal shooting that claimed the lives of security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, and patron Richard Arow, 28, Mr Elliott said he’d been on a drug bender.

“I was on drugs and hadn’t slept ... cocaine, Xanax, cannabis,” he said.

After receiving instructions from his father to carry out the attack, Mr Elliott messaged his co-accused friend, Allan Fares, 24, on encrypted messaging app Wickr asking him to help.

“He started freaking out, he didn’t wanna do it,” Mr Elliott said.

But Mr Elliott pressured his friend, telling him his father’s demands meant they didn’t have a choice.

The friends met in Wollert, driving in convoy in a stolen black 4WD Porsche and a Suzuki Swift before meeting near the club and both jumping in the luxury car.

Jacob Elliott told a court his father ordered him to fire ‘warning shots’. Picture: Facebook.

With Mr Fares behind the wheel, the pair drove past the club multiple times before Mr Elliott held a handgun out the window and allegedly fired four shots into a crowd of people outside the club’s entrance.

“My intention was that the bullets were gonna go upwards, not hitting anyone or anything like that,” Mr Elliott said.

“I didn’t know what happened to those poor people.”

The following morning, Mr Fares told Mr Elliott people were “dying in hospital”.

“I just got this feeling inside of me, it was like an ugly feeling,” Mr Elliott said.

“It felt disgusting ... my hair started standing up on my arm. It was a feeling like I’ve never felt it before.”

In the weeks after the shooting, Mr Fares told Mr Elliott he didn’t want anything more to do with him or his father.

Mr Elliott pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, with defence lawyers telling jurors they wouldn’t be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that he intended to kill.

Mr Fares also pleaded not guilty, claiming he never had an intention for anyone to be shot.

The trial continues.