Mongols bikie Josh Rider told judge he was a ‘changed man’ before Eastlink hit on Paul Virgona

A Mongols bikie who found love told a judge he was a “changed man” — but 22 days later he killed an innocent driver on Eastlink.

A Mongols bikie killed fruiterer Paul Virgona on EastLink just 22 days after promising a judge he was a changed man.

The Saturday Herald Sun can reveal Josh Rider’s shocking criminal history – from stints in jail for firearms offences to being freed on a community-based order over a brutal assault less than a month before he pummelled Mr Virgona’s van with bullets in ­November, 2019.

Weeks before the shooting, a County Court judge determined Rider had “reasonable prospects of rehabilitation” after he declared he had turned his life around after finding love.

She gave him a chance on a two-year community correction order – despite him bashing a man to the point he needed a metal plate inserted in his head – to prove his criminal ways were behind him.

But within days he was back mixing with his outlaw bikie mates at the Mongols clubhouse in Port Melbourne to plan the brutal murder.

The heavily tattooed ­enforcer admitted the execution-style killing of Mr Virgona, 46, only after last month striking a deal with prosecutors to avoid a life sentence.

Josh Rider avoided a life sentence over the murder of Paul Virgona.

He had always vehemently denied involvement, but with DNA and CCTV evidence stacked up against him, he pleaded guilty on the eve of his trial.

Court documents reveal Rider, 32, folded after Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd, KC, agreed she would not push for a life term in jail.

And in a move that outraged the Virgona family, the prosecution also settled on the basis Rider would plead guilty to reckless murder, not intentional murder, which also discounts his sentence.

A day before Rider entered his guilty plea, Supreme Court judge Christopher Beale refused to give him a sentencing indication on the basis of reckless murder, saying the killing “bespeaks murderous intent”.

“It came as something of a surprise to me that the parties were contemplating settlement based on recklessness, not intent,” Justice Beale said.

“There would be many people in the community who would be possibly shocked at the thought: ‘Why was this reckless murder, not intentional murder?’

“Were I to grant a sentence indication, the court could be seen to be a party to something contrived, even unjust.”

He also considered statements from six of Mr Virgona’s family and friends, five of which opposed such an agreement.

Despite having the indication application dismissed, Rider’s barrister Dermot Dann, KC, returned to court the following day to say the deal remained and his client would plead guilty.

“He will do so on the basis … of reckless murder and … of other understandings as to how the matter would be put generally and that there be no suggestion of a life sentence,” Mr Dann said.

Josh Rider found love with partner Chloe Damiani.

Paul Virgona.

Rider’s plea deal never involved him turning snitch on his co-offender, Aaron Ong, 37, who proceeded to trial and on Monday was found guilty of intentional murder.

The fact Ong pleaded not guilty and went to trial will mean he faces life behind bars.

This is despite the evidence pointing to Rider being the one who pulled the trigger, and Ong the driver.

Ong, a plasterer, also has a criminal history limited to possessing and manufacturing drugs, ammunition and proceeds of crime offences.

In comparison, Rider was on a CCO at the time of the slaying, having been given the chance to avoid jail when sentenced weeks earlier on October 18 for the cowardly bashing of a man at a St Kilda Rd apartment complex.

An associate named Dragan Sovilj had bad blood with a co-tenant and brought Rider in to help deal with it in August 2016.

After demanding $1500, Sovilj punched the victim ­before he and Rider, who had done prison time in Western Australia, chased him and bashed him unconscious.

The onslaught left the victim with severe facial injuries and surgeons had to insert a metal plate in his face.

Rider promised County Court judge Elizabeth Brimer he had turned his life around after finding love with his partner, Chloe Daimani.

A letter tabled to the court outlined how the man with the lengthy criminal history had gone through “wholesale transformation in personality over the last two years”.

The court was told Sovilj was Rider’s only mate in Melbourne at the time, and that he had acted out of a “misguided sense of loyalty”.

Josh Rider’s legal team negotiated a guilty plea for reckless, not intentional, murder — which carries less jail time.

Josh Rider and co-offender Aaron Ong will be sentenced as early as March 2023.

It may have been that same loyalty that led him to meet with fellow bikies at the Port Melbourne clubhouse, where he and Ong were captured on CCTV leaving ­together in the hours before the EastLink shooting.

They lay in wait near Mr Virgona’s Croydon home for two hours, before following him on to EastLink in a stolen Mercedes with cloned number plates, where they sped up ­beside him and fired 11 shots into the driver’s side as he drove to Epping market.

But it was a bungled hit, as they got the wrong man.

Ong and Rider were in Croydon to shoot a member of the rival Finks gang who lived on the same street as Mr Virgona, a family man with no ties to criminal gangs.

Antionetta Virgona and her son, Luca, 17, were besides themselves. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

WA police as far back as 2013 were concerned enough to ask a court to have Rider included on a list of people a Perth Mongols bikie should have no contact with.

A court would hear that a loaded handgun and ammunition were seized from Rider’s home in that period.

After jail stints out west, Rider ended up in Melbourne where he drifted through the criminal world, maintaining his associations with the OMCG world.

One question that remains unanswered is whether Rider and Ong were acting autonomously when they ambushed Mr Virgona.

Investigators carried out search warrants on several figures connected to the Mongols as part of their ­inquiries.

But no further charges were laid over the Virgona matter.

In light of the CCO breach, Judge Brimer was forced to resentence Rider last year to nine months’ jail over the St Kilda attack.

Ong and Rider are expected to be sentenced over the murder of Mr Virgona as early as March.