Zak Grieve paying the price for not stopping murder of Ray Niceforo

DOZENS of people knew of the amateurish plot to kill Katherine man Ray Niceforo but did nothing to stop it, The Australian reveals today

Katherine man Zak Grieve during his murder trial in 2012.

DOZENS of people knew of the amateurish plot to kill Katherine man Ray Niceforo but did nothing to stop it, The Australian reveals today.

Three men – Zak Grieve, Darren Halfpenny and Chris Malyschko – are serving life behind bars for Niceforo’s 2011 murder, a case which exposed what the trial judge called the “unprincipled and morally insensible” regimen of mandatory sentencing laws for murder.

Grieve is six years into a mandatory minimum 20-year non-parole period, despite Justice Dean Mildren concluding he had pulled out of the plot to kill Niceforo and played no physical role in the crime.

Grieve’s friend, Matthew Carroll, told The Australian during the filming of a six-part documentary The Queen and Zak Grieve “a good, solid 20-30 people” knew Niceforo was going to be killed before Halfpenny and Malyschko bludgeoned him to death with a spanner.

“Someone approached me and told me that this was going to happen. This was months before (the murder),” he said.

“They said, ‘Your friend Chris is looking to kill someone for money.’ I believe those were the words.”

Mr Carroll said he gave police a full account of what he knew at the time, and remains puzzled that Grieve could be found guilty of murder because he failed to stop the attack on Niceforo after he pulled out, when so many in town also knew it was set to happen.

During Grieve’s Supreme Court trial for murder, his friend Tom Smith said Grieve openly hinted at the plan to kill Niceforo.

“He said he trusted me and would want me to be his alibi for doing this, if he went off and killed this bloke … I agreed, thinking it wasn’t serious,” Mr Smith told the court.

When asked who were the parties at the time of these discussions, he said, “a lot of people … there was a lot of teenagers, a lot of people from Katherine High School there.”

The documentary series includes the first ever filmed interview with Niceforo’s abused former partner, who commissioned his killing from her son, Malyschko, who in turn recruited Halfpenny and Grieve.

“I do regret it, even though it made me safe (from Niceforo), it took Ray’s life … he still had a right to his life,” she said.

The Queen & Zak Grieve, a six-part documentary series forming part of an exclusive investigation, is out at theaustralian.com.au.