Mongols bikie Aaron Ong found guilty of murder of fruiterer Paul Virgona on EastLink

As a jury deliberated on the fate of a bikie who executed an innocent father on EastLink, a big part of the picture was missing.

The jury who sat through a three-week trial over the murder of suburban fruiterer Paul Virgona were not short on detailed evidence.

They had been shown hours of CCTV and were meticulously taken through the circumstantial case facing Aaron Ong, who had pleaded not guilty to executing Mr Virgona as he drove along EastLink.

But what they didn’t know was the bikie past of Ong and the feud between the Mongols and the Finks which led to the botched killing of the innocent father.

Court rulings made prior to the trial meant the jury had no idea Ong was a patched member of the feared Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang.

Paul Virgona was shot dead in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity.

Mongols bikie Aaron Ong has been found guilty of murder.

Instead they were told he was simply “associated” with a motorcycle club for five years.

When shown CCTV footage of the men coming and going from the club’s Port Melbourne headquarters the night before the killing, all Mongols signage was blurred.

Media covering the trial were also put on notice not to refer to Ong as a “bikie” or “member” of the Mongols, or say the motorcycle club was a gang or OMCG.

Jurors were also not told about detectives’ suspicions the shooting was a case of mistaken identity related to an escalating feud between the Mongols and Finks.

Multiple tit-for-tat shootings between the rival bikie gangs were being investigated at the time.

Mr Virgona had no connections to any criminal gangs, and was suspected of being mistaken for his Finks bikie neighbour.

Josh Rider (right), pictured with Toby Mitchell, had already pleaded guilty to Virgona’s murder.

Ong and fellow Mongol Josh Rider now face life behind bars for the execution-style murder on a busy Melbourne freeway.

Rider and Ong were captured on CCTV leaving the Mongols Port Melbourne clubhouse in the hours before the brutal EastLink shooting on November 9, 2019.

They drove in convoy in stolen vehicles — one in a Mercedes and the other in an Amarok — through the suburbs to a Mooroolbark street, where they left the Amarok.

Both, then in the Mercedes, went to Mr Virgona’s Croydon home, where they lay in wait for two hours.

Just after 2am, as the much-loved family man climbed into his van and drove out of his street towards Epping market, the burly bikies flicked their headlights on and followed.

They trailed closely behind him for 12 minutes, before speeding up beside the van on EastLink and firing 11 shots into the driver’s side.

Rider, 32, was the armed passenger who waved the gun out the window and pulled the trigger, as Ong, 37, was driving.

They both initially vehemently denied involvement.

But in a major twist on the eve of their trial — and exactly three years to the day of the deadly ambush — Rider fronted the Supreme Court and pleaded guilty to murder.

Virgona’s van stopped in the middle of EastLink after he died behind the wheel.

A suppression order meant the heavily-tattooed Mongol’s confession could not be revealed until a verdict had been reached against his co-accused.

On Monday, following a three-week trial and as little as six hours of deliberations, a 12-person jury found Ong guilty of murder.

Outside of court, Mr Virgona’s brother Mark said he was relieved by the verdict.

“It’s a start,” he said, adding that it was an “emotional” day for his family.

The trial heard the murder was “carefully planned, carefully implemented”, with the killers even leaving their mobile phones in Port Melbourne so they couldn’t be linked to the evil crime.

A fuel container, which the men used to torch the Mercedes after the shooting, was purchased from Bunnings weeks earlier.

But what the men couldn’t plan for was that a builder had put a secret camera in a tree near his Mooroolbark building site, which would capture them leaving the Amarok at the rendezvous point, later returning and torching the Mercedes, before fleeing in the Amarok.

Bullet holes in the side of Virgona’s van.

The quick-thinking builder reported to police what he was seeing via an app alert on his phone, which was linked to the cameras.

Through police radios, all officers on patrol were alerted to keep an eye out for the Amarok.

The duo were soon after forced to abandon the Amarok and flee on foot after police gave chase — only to leave crucial DNA evidence behind that linked them to the crime.

Rider’s DNA was on the steering wheel, and driver’s side, while a black and white Culture Kings duffel bag, left nearby, belonged to Ong.

Ong’s lawyer Mark Gumbleton claimed police had the “wrong bloke”, and that it was another man with Rider that night.

He claimed Ong stayed at Rider’s house in Port Melbourne that night, getting up the next morning and returning to his Chirnside Park home on his motorbike, which would match with his mobile phone data analysis.

The jury’s guilty verdict dismisses this theory.

Both Rider and Ong will return to the Supreme Court on March 1 for a pre-sentence hearing.