By Adam Cooper
Saeed Noori, who mowed down 16 pedestrians when he drove through one of Melbourne’s busiest intersections before Christmas 2017, has been jailed for life for murder and causing serious injury.
Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth on Thursday ordered Noori be jailed for at least 30 years for the horror he caused on December 21, 2017 when he drove into the intersection of Flinders and Elizabeth streets while about 70 people were crossing the road.
Saeed Noori following his arrest.Credit: Seven News Melbourne
Noori, 37, will be well into his 60s before he is eligible for parole.
Grandfather of three Antonios Crocaris, 83, suffered fatal injuries when he was hit and died eight days later.
Other pedestrians, including international tourists and a four-year-old boy being carried by his grandfather, were badly injured when Noori drove his mother's Suzuki Vitara SUV into the intersection at around 50km/h about 4.40pm.
Some suffered head and brain injuries, while other people were hit by flying bodies in the chaos.
Saaed Noori is dragged from the car in Flinders Street after the attack.Credit: Seven News
"Deliberately driving a vehicle into a crowd of people is a dreadful crime, one which undermines the rights of ordinary citizens in a civilised society to be able to go about their normal daily activities in public, without fear of being harmed," Justice Hollingworth told Noori, who kept his head and eyes downcast in the dock.
"You chose to commit the offences in the public domain, in a crowded public space where your actions would have the most dramatic effect.
"Your actions have indeed horrified and traumatised many people.
"The offending was entirely unprovoked, and displayed a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life. Whatever your motive was for committing these offences, it had nothing to do with the particular victims."
Noori put a hand up to acknowledge a supporter as he was led from the dock, and his mother collapsed when told of the sentence. She was assisted by family members and court staff.
After the incident, police found images on Noori’s computer of fatal car or van attacks in London, Barcelona and in Charlottesville, and images of the wars in Syria and Iraq, the court heard.
Off-duty policeman Francis Adams, who arrested Noori at the scene, heard him say him say ‘‘Allahu Akbar’’ two of three times, and Noori later told police he acted ‘‘in the name of Allah’’.
But Noori was not charged with terrorism offences and instead pleaded guilty to one charge of murder, 11 of recklessly causing serious injury and five of reckless conduct endangering life.
Antonios Crocaris died from injuries suffered in the Flinders Street attack.
Most of those charges relate to the 16 pedestrians he hit with the car but one of the reckless conduct charges relates to all the other people whose lives he put in danger.
Justice Hollingworth said Noori had paranoid delusions that ASIO was monitoring him, believed the Australian government was mistreating Muslims, and had some sympathies for the terror organisation Islamic State.
He was also long-time user of ice and other drugs, had previously experienced drug-induced psychoses, and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and other mental-health problems.
The judge said Noori had not used ice for two days before the attack and found the other factors played only a moderate role in his deliberate decision to accelerate along Flinders Street, overtake another car and drive through a red light and crash into the pedestrians.
Saeed Noori is driven off after being charged in December 2017.Credit: Darrian Traynor
Earlier that day he arranged for a technician to remove the hard drive from his computer, lied to his wife and mother about why he was going into the city from his Heidelberg West home, tried without success to hire a car from two businesses and caught a bus to his mother’s home, from where he took her SUV.
‘‘The fact remains that, despite the mitigating factors upon which your counsel relied, your offending was truly appalling,’’ Justice Hollingworth said.
The father of three, a former refugee from Afghanistan who became an Australian citizen more than a decade ago, has served more than 460 days since his arrest.
Justice Hollingworth said some victims likened that day to "a horror movie" and had their sense of safety shattered. Many dreaded trips to the city, and the sights of crowds at intersections, and the sounds of sirens and screeching tyres brought on panic attacks.
But amid the mayhem, she said, many survivors and witnesses did "extraordinarily brave and compassionate things". Some pedestrians were injured pushing others out of the way of the car, and other people comforted the injured and traumatised.
One woman wrote to Mr Crocaris' family to let them know strangers had comforted him and held his hand. She concluded the letter: "Please remember, as we are struggling to, that most people are kind and decent to each other. I saw one man do something hateful, but I saw many more people do something loving that day."