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The terrifying scene at a suburban apartment block when Amirah Droudis murdered lover Man Monis’s wife

TO OUTSIDERS they looked like any other suburban couple, but the terrible events of that Sunday afternoon proved they weren’t.

Man Monis' former-girlfriend Amirah Droudis found guilty of murder

IT WAS a sunny Sunday in the suburbs and 30-year-old Helen Lee thought she was just knocking on the door of Flat 43 in the Werrington apartment block to see her ex-husband and collect the kids.

It was around 4.20pm on April 21, 2013 and Man Monis’s first wife — who has been called Helen Lee for legal reasons — had left her boyfriend outside in the car waiting as she made the visit.

What was to happen next was so horrifying that to this day the neighbours who witnessed the terrible scenes break down in tears.

Ms Lee regularly visited the flat Monis was renting with his lover, Amirah Droudis to collect her two sons, aged five and nine, after their access visit with their father.

Tensions had been building between her and Monis and Droudis, and she had brought her boyfriend along in the car for added security.

Monis and Droudis had turned up at Ms Lee’s house with two Rebels bikies to intimidate her, and called the police on her to report fake crimes.

Amirah Droudis walking near her home in late 2014 after her lover had died in the Lindt cafe siege and she was on basil for murdering his ex wife. Picture: News Corp.
Amirah Droudis walking near her home in late 2014 after her lover had died in the Lindt cafe siege and she was on basil for murdering his ex wife. Picture: News Corp.

Droudis had been trying to take over the role of mother in the affections of Ms Lee’s sons, who called Droudis “Mummi”.

But despite the friction, Ms Lee could not have predicted the absolute terror of that day.

While her boyfriend waited downstairs, Ms Lee was to experience a deadly encounter with an enraged Droudis.

As Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, QC, told the court during Droudis’s trial for the murder of Ms Lee, he was “the mastermind” of the killing.

But Droudis, a 37-year-old former hairdresser turned radicalised Muslim called ‘Sister Amirah”, was Monis’s brainwashed devotee.

What happened next, as Supreme Court Justice Peter Johnson described it, was “a hot blooded and frenzied murder”, a ritualistic killing carried out by “an enraged female with an emotional investment” in killing Ms Lee.

Suburban killers: Amirah Droudis and her lover Man Monis in 2013, the same year Droudis murdered Monis’s first wife to exact his revenge. Picture: News Corp.
Suburban killers: Amirah Droudis and her lover Man Monis in 2013, the same year Droudis murdered Monis’s first wife to exact his revenge. Picture: News Corp.
Amirah Droudis in a photograph taken long before her radicalisation by Man Monis.
Amirah Droudis in a photograph taken long before her radicalisation by Man Monis.
The flat where Droudis murdered Monis’s first wife in a stabbing frenzy and then set her alight. Picture: JT.
The flat where Droudis murdered Monis’s first wife in a stabbing frenzy and then set her alight. Picture: JT.

The events took place 20 months before Monis would take hostages in the Lindt Cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place and die in a blaze of gunfire as police ended the Sydney siege.

But Monis’s mind was already on murder.

His plan was to have his wife killed over a custody battle and “burnt in the fire of hell” as retribution, and he was already placing Droudis as “the mother figure” in a newly created family unit.

Monis had set up an elaborate series of alibis for himself on the day. All he needed was Droudis to do his bidding and dispose of his first wife.

Waiting, like a spider, in Monis’s flat, Droudis was ready when Ms Lee entered the apartment block foyer and climbed the stairs to the third floor.

Outside Flat 43, Ms Lee came upon Droudis, who was dressed in a black hijab and seething with anger, and who pounced on the unsuspecting 30-year-old mother.

The scenes that ensued were retold in dramatic evidence during Droudis’s trial, which has just ended with her conviction for murder.

During the trial, the court was played videos of the two suburban killers — Droudis and Monis — living an ordinary life in the suburbs, going on picnic and barbecues, on trips to the pool and to the beach.

The pair looked like an ordinary suburban couple, but the murder scene described in court by neighbour Wayne Morris was both violent and disturbing.

Breaking down in tears in the courtroom, Mr Morris, who was living in the flat opposite Monis, recounted the killing of Ms Lee.

He described how an “angry” woman in a “rage”, had stabbed the victim with a 20cm bladed knife.

He then watched the woman, who was dressed in a black hijab, pour liquid from a Coke bottle over the victim and drop the lit match on her.

Neighbours described how the woman in a black hijab set Monis’s first wife on fire and then fled down the staircase (above). Picture: JT.
Neighbours described how the woman in a black hijab set Monis’s first wife on fire and then fled down the staircase (above). Picture: JT.
Man Monis in hospital the day his ex wife was murdered. He created elaborate alibis while his lover carried out his act of vengeance.
Man Monis in hospital the day his ex wife was murdered. He created elaborate alibis while his lover carried out his act of vengeance.

Mr Morris related the “surreal” scene on the landing outside his apartment, with the victim pleading for her life before “everything just went quiet”.

Mr Morris, who told the court there was blood “all over the body and all over the wall” of the landing outside his flat also described his fear when he confronted the female killer “in Middle Eastern clothing” and tried to stop her setting the victim’s body on fire.

Mr Morris said he was watching football alone in his flat after 4pm on Sunday, April 21, 2013 when he heard a loud scream in “a lady’s voice” yelling “I’ve got children, I’ve got children”.

Mr Morris went to the peephole of his flat in the western Sydney suburb of Werrington and saw a woman stabbing in a downward motion “a person on the ground with her hand up trying to defend herself”.

Bringing his hand in a stabbing motion from his head down to his waist, Mr Morris said he saw the female assailant “going up and down like that” with the knife.

“It happened really quick,” Mr Morris said. “To me, I saw it, it was so surreal. I saw at least three or four stabs and the person on the ground just went quiet.

“Everything just went quiet and I don’t know where the knife went and all of a sudden there was a plastic bottle in the [female assailant’s] hand and she was pouring ... it all over the body.”

Man Monis’s neighbour Wayne Morris tearfully recounted the murder scene during Amirah Droudis’s trial. Picture: Chris Pavlich.
Man Monis’s neighbour Wayne Morris tearfully recounted the murder scene during Amirah Droudis’s trial. Picture: Chris Pavlich.
Droudis as “Sister Amirah” in a niqab on one of the “extremely offensive” videos she made for Man Monis’s website.
Droudis as “Sister Amirah” in a niqab on one of the “extremely offensive” videos she made for Man Monis’s website.
Amirah Droudis in around 2002, years before she became Man Monis’s lover.
Amirah Droudis in around 2002, years before she became Man Monis’s lover.
Amirah Droudis as a young girl, Picture: Candace Sutton.
Amirah Droudis as a young girl, Picture: Candace Sutton.

Mr Morris said the liquid was in a 600ml Coca Cola-style bottle with no label, and his fears about the building being set alight made him leave his flat to confront her.

“I just said ‘don’t’ and she screamed back at me ‘No! You go back in there’,” he told the court.

“The rage in her voice. She was angry at me. She was very angry. She made me feel like I’d done something wrong.

“It was a really scary moment.”

Mr Morris said after he refused to return back to his flat, he saw the woman throw something on the body of the victim which “just lit up straight away”.

He said flames engulfed the body and the wall of the landing, which was also covered in blood.

“There was blood everywhere, all over the body, all over the wall.”

On the day of his ex-wife’s murder, the court heard, Monis’s alibis for himself included going on a picnic with friends, filming numerous videos of himself away from his flat, and staging a crash in his black Jeep Cherokee.

Man Haron Monis under arrest at Surry Hills police station in 2009, by which time Amirah Droudis was already his lover and willing extremist.
Man Haron Monis under arrest at Surry Hills police station in 2009, by which time Amirah Droudis was already his lover and willing extremist.

Another neighbour at the Werrington flats described the aftermath of the murder and the woman he briefly saw before she ran through flames to escape the apartment building.

Jonathon Truupold, who came across the blaze engulfing the floor where Ms Lee was murdered, saw Droudis’s “wild eyes” through the flames.

He said that he had smelt a kerosene-type chemical fire and rushed from his flat with a bag of cooking flour to extinguish the blaze.

“As I was tossing flour out of the packet I looked into the flames and I was confronted with a face,” Mr Truupold said.

“Looking up through the flames ... there was obviously someone standing looking down at me.

“The person seemed startled ... a wild look in the eyes and obviously startled.

“They ran through the flames and I got a glimpse and we made eye contact for a millisecond or two.”

He then saw the woman “fleeing the stairwell” before he returned to his flat and prepared to evacuate the building because of the fire.

From little girl to savage killer, Amirah Droudis (pictured, above with her brother John) became an enraged murderer to please her lover Man Monis. Picture: CS.
From little girl to savage killer, Amirah Droudis (pictured, above with her brother John) became an enraged murderer to please her lover Man Monis. Picture: CS.

Mr Truupold’s flatmate Peta Drzewiecki, said she had gone to the door of her flat when she heard a female screaming from the floor above.

After Mr Truupold took the flour in an attempt to douse the fire, Ms Drzewiecki came out again to see an orange glow from the floor above and a woman moving quickly down the stairs.

She said the woman was emitting a repetitive “moan or a whimper” as she moved past.

The woman was wearing “dark clothing, a dark burka” and had large round eyes and “very defined” eyebrows.

On Thursday, Justice Johnson nominated the woman as Amirah Droudis.

“The police investigation did not detect any other woman who may have been recruited by him to act as the assassin,” Justice Johnson told the court.

“This crime had all the hallmarks of a frenzied attack by an angry amateur killer.

“Monis was the planner. The murder was carried out in a hot-blooded fashion by a female with a strong emotional investment in killing Ms Lee.”

Droudis will be sentenced on November 30.

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/the-terrifying-scene-at-a-suburban-apartment-block-when-amirah-droudis-murdered-lover-man-moniss-wife/news-story/dfddcdc0259bbbc92577c45d2515772f