Nabil Maghnie’s role in downfall of son Jacob Elliott revealed

Jacob Elliott was just 15 when he left his mother’s “caring and positive” home to move in with his gangster dad. A few years later he was a convicted killer in prison.

Gangland figure Nabil Maghnie exposed his murdering son Jacob Elliott to drugs, guns and a life of crime from the age of 16, turning the happy teenager into a trigger-happy killer within two years.

Elliott – convicted of the 2019 Love Machine drive-by murders – detailed how he was exposed to guns and cocaine during a teenage stint spent living with his father.

Elliott had faced the Melbourne County Court on conspiracy to assault and firearms offences committed while he was under investigation over the Love Machine killings.

His demise, under his father’s watch, was revealed in a plea hearing in the County Court last month.

The court was told of Maghnie’s desire to get involved in his son’s life when he was 15.

Judge Simon Moglia’s judgment said Elliott, who had previously had a loving home environment with his mother, was at first hesitant about becoming closer with Maghnie, because of his criminal background.

But he was also attracted by having a stable father figure and the prospect of positive personal growth.

Things went badly wrong from 2016 when Elliott made the move.

Jacob Elliott is serving life in jail with a minimum of 29 years. Picture: Facebook

“You were exposed to drug use, violence and a criminal milieu that significantly influenced your development and behaviour,” Justice Moglia said.

“On a daily basis, you would observe ‘guns, cocaine and heaps of money laying around’ and ‘see (your father) bragging about it and eventually (you) began to think like that, too.

“You commenced using cocaine steadily from the age of 16, which your father would limit to certain amounts.”

Elliott’s use of cannabis escalated and, after moving to his own place at 17, so did his cocaine consumption.

“You reported that at the time of your arrest, you were using approximately two grams of cocaine a day which you would couple with Xanax to help “come down” from “episodes of agitation and confusion”.

Until he moved in with Maghnie, Elliott had reported having a positive home environment with his mother.

At age 18, Elliott opened fire on the Love Machine nightclub in Prahran killing crowd-controller Aaron Osmani and patron Richard Arow.

Nabil Maghnie outside Melbourne West police station after being questioned by detectives. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Others were wounded in the April 19, 2019, attack, for which Elliott is serving life in jail with a minimum of 29 years.

Two months later, Elliott was arrested after a chain of events which started with a belief his girlfriend was with two men in a hotel room at Docklands.

He arranged for a friend to collect a pistol from Elliott’s mother’s Broadmeadows home and bring it to Docklands.

“He agreed to do as you asked and, in doing so, formed an agreement to pursue a course of conduct involving an assault on the two men with your girlfriend, while you would be carrying a firearm,” a court summary said.

Police later recovered the gun, a loaded .45 calibre weapon with a defaced factory number and new details stamped over it.

Elliott, who pleaded guilty, was handed a total effective sentence of 22 months over the conspiracy and gun charges, which is to be served concurrently with the murder stretch.

It is three years this month since Nabil Maghnie was shot dead at Epping.

Nabil Maghnie’s children on the Epping scene of their father’s shooing in January 2020. Picture: Wayne Taylor

At the time, Maghnie was under scrutiny from a special police task force known as Sector which was investigating high-level underworld crimes, including the Love Machine shootings.

He was regarded as one of the most dangerous figures in Melbourne’s Middle-Eastern organised crime sphere.

On the night of his death, he had gone to a house in Lalor to talk to a man he believed had injured his daughter, Sabrine, in an earlier road-rage incident.

After allegedly assaulting a man, someone else emerged from inside the house and shot him, a killing which remains the subject of a homicide squad investigation.

“Detectives have spoken to a number of people in the course of the investigation, however are yet to charge anyone in relation to the incident. The investigation remains ongoing and detectives urge anyone who has information about the matter to come forward or contact Crime Stoppers,” a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.