Gangland figure Judy Moran’s secret payout from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre prison
She was locked up for the murder of her own brother-in-law Desmond “Tuppence” Moran, but time in prison proved lucrative for crime family matriarch Judy Moran.
Police & Courts
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Crime family matriarch Judy Moran won a secret payout over allegations she was injured by staff at the state’s main women’s prison.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal Moran received the compensation over incidents which happened in the period after she was locked up for the murder of her brother-in-law Desmond “Tuppence” Moran.
The settlement figure, reached after two years of negotiations, is believed to run into five figures.
It was reached behind closed doors in 2018 after Moran took on authorities over her treatment at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Melbourne’s west.
The Herald Sun has confirmed civil proceedings were launched by Moran in the County Court in 2015 against the State of Victoria and Department of Justice.
The drawn-out litigation saw four trials listed over 18 months with lawyers for the Victorian government arguing the prison officers had used “reasonable and necessary powers” in their contact with Moran while she was detained at the maximum security prison.
Defence court documents argued “no force was used” while Moran was stripsearched in her cell on October 24, 2009.
Those documents alleged she was suffering from various pre-existing medical ailments at the time of the alleged incident, including a fractured skull, ribs and leg; osteoarthritis in her knee as well as depression and PTSD.
The justice department again denied allegations Moran was assaulted in June 2011 while she was escorted between cells on a motorised buggy, arguing she instead sustained the injuries when she fell off an outdoor chair.
A confidential “compromise” was reached in September 2018, just weeks after the fourth and final trial was set aside.
Moran, who is confined to a wheelchair, remains unhappy with her treatment at Dame Phyllis, in particular the handling of her blood-thinning medication by prison management.
Family friend Kate Dunstan, who says she was taken in by the Morans when she was a 12-year-old street kid, said she had been told there had been errors with dosages.
Ms Dunstan, who refers to Moran as “Mum”, said she was “scared”.
“You can hear it in her voice. She’s petrified. She thinks she’s going to die,” Ms Dunstan said.
“I’m really stressed that I’m going to get a call to say she’s dead.”
Moran is serving a minimum 21-year prison term over the 2009 murder of Des Moran.
He was shot dead inside an Ascot Vale cafe by Geoffrey Armour, who was also convicted and jailed.
Moran’s family had been wiped out by Carl Williams’ stable of killers during Melbourne’s gangland war.
Son Mark was murdered outside his Aberfeldie home in 2000 in a strike suspected of being linked to the earlier shooting of Williams by one of the Morans.
Another son, Jason, was shot dead with friend Pasquale Barbaro at a kids footy clinic at Essendon in 2003.
And in 2004, her husband Lewis, the brother of Tuppence, died in a brutal killing at the Brunswick Club.
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