Love Machine shooter was just trying to prove loyalty to his father, court hears

The Love Machine gunman was “unwilling” to pull the trigger but was seeking to prove his loyalty to his crime boss dad, a court has heard.

The son of slain crime boss Nabil Maghnie carried out the deadly Love Machine nightclub shooting because he was desperate for his father’s acceptance, his lawyer has argued.

The Supreme Court on Thursday heard Jacob Elliott, 21, who was convicted of murder over the April 2019 shooting, was devoted to his feared underworld figure father and sought to prove his loyalty.

“He’s got a desperate need for acceptance, he’s got a misguided sense of loyalty to Mr Maghnie,” Elliott’s lawyer Julie Condon said during a pre-sentencing hearing.

Jacob Elliott was convicted of murder over the 2019 shootings at Love Machine nightclub in Prahran. Picture: Facebook

Ms Condon contended her client deserved a shorter sentence because he was an “unwilling” participant who was acting on the instruction of his father.

But Justice Andrew Tinney questioned what evidence showed Elliott was reluctant to pull the trigger.

“How would the fact he was told to do that reduce his criminality?” he asked Ms Condon.

“The motivation in this case is clear enough, it was to punish and to send a message.”

Ms Condon conceded the only evidence of Maghnie’s instructions came from Elliott himself, but said on the “balance of probabilities” it was likely true.

Nabil Maghnie was considered one of the most dangerous figures in the city’s underworld. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

However Justice Tinney noted the jury had rejected the claim and it was plausible that Elliott and his co-convicted friend Allan Fares, 25, hatched the plan without influence from his father.

Maghnie, 44, who was considered one of the most dangerous figures in the city’s underworld, was himself shot dead in Epping in January 2020 with his murder remaining unsolved.

Ms Condon said Elliott’s offending, while extremely serious, did not warrant the imposition of a life sentence because it was not a “dreadful” crime.

Richard Arow died in the Love Machine nightclub shooting in 2019.

Security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani was also killed in the shooting.

“Do you dispute that the these crimes by your client are dreadful crimes?” Justice Tinney asked.

“We would not give them that construction your honour ... the offending although grave must be seen contextually through the prism of Mr Maghnie’s influence over his young and immature son,” Ms Condon replied.

Justice Tinney said he had not seen a “shred of remorse” from Elliott during the trial.

Elliott and Allan were earlier this year convicted of murder and attempted murder over the drive-by shooting on April 14, 2019 that claimed the lives of patron Richard Arow, 28, and security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani, 37, and injured three others.

A third man, Moussa Hamka, 28, was found guilty of assisting the pair by hiding the murder weapon after the shooting.

The hearing continues.