Underworld podcaster’s mother bashed in ‘targeted’ home invasion
Three masked men wielding machetes have attacked a crime podcaster’s 70-year-old mother, as ABC investigates a Four Corners reporter amid bitter falling out between the pair.
Three men armed with machetes and a baseball bat have bashed underworld podcaster Ryan Naumenko’s elderly mother in a vicious and “targeted” midnight home invasion.
Victoria Police said offenders disguised in hoodies and masks broke into the frail 70-year-old’s home in Mildura, about 540km north of Melbourne, just before 12.30am on Wednesday.
Naumenko’s mother sustained “minor injuries” in the “aggravated home invasion” before her assailants fled when confronted by Naumenko, who had been staying with his mother.
Police said investigators “believe this was a targeted incident” and that nothing was stolen during the raid.
Naumenko on Wednesday afternoon commended the police for the “brilliant job” they did in responding to the ordeal online, before adding he knew “who ordered this job” and suggesting it could be related to the publication of a news “article”.
“My mother’s home was invaded by 3 youth offenders,” he said online. “2 of the children were carrying weapons – a machete and a small bat.
“They jumped the fence and smashed their way in through the back yard. They punched my mother multiple times to her face but left no marks.
“The hits were ‘very soft’ ... ‘they were kids (that) didn’t know how to punch’, according to my mother. They left within seconds and ran the second they heard my voice.
“They were telling my elderly mother who is recovering from major cancer to ‘Say Ryan’s a Dog’.”
It is understood investigators are already looking at number of potential suspects in relation to the home invasion.
The brutal ordeal comes less than a week after Naumenko sparked a public media war with the ABC’s Four Corners journalist Mahmood Fazal – a former sergeant at arms for The Mongols outlaw bikie gang – after they had a bitter falling out while making a true crime podcast, Word on the Street.
The ABC this month announced it was investigating the circumstances surrounding Fazal’s unauthorised involvement in the project amid allegations he tried to hide the fact he was being paid to participate in the series and that he demanded his fees be settled in cash up front.
The Australian is not suggesting Fazal – a Walkley Award-winning journalist who has worked for the ABC since 2021 – is connected to the home invasion, nor that it was motivated by the duo’s public feud.
A self-confessed former crim who once associated with “scammers, conmen and drug dealers”, Naumenko launched a vicious public take-down of his one-time podcast partner on YouTube two weeks ago.
In the clip, he claimed Fazal demanded an upfront payment for thousands of dollars before recording the second instalment of the series and confirmed the podcast series had been funded by an online gambling firm, Vegastars, that was not registered in Australia.
Naumenko has since shared several damning text message exchanges with the ABC’s Media Watch program and The Sydney Morning Herald that allegedly detail conversations he had with Fazal, in which they appeared to discuss the cash payments and his connections to “the Alameddine crime family in Sydney”.
In another message, Fazal is accused of describing YouTube identity Jordan Shanks, better known as FriendlyJordies to his followers online, as a “f...in’ rat” and saying “I wanna kill to kill so bad”.
The exchange relates to allegations Fazal made death threats against Shanks on behalf of the Alameddines after he mocked them in an online video, before his Bondi home was firebombed.
Fazal has claimed that some of the text messages – including any suggesting he wanted to “kill” Shanks – had been fabricated and others taken out of context.
The reporter – who has been attached to the public broadcaster’s flagship investigative program – has hired renowned Sydney solicitor Rebekah Giles to protect his interests, and is understood to be currently on leave from the ABC pending the conclusion of its internal investigation.
