Illness reduced jihadi Khaled Sharrouf’s stretch

AN EX-judge says he would have given Khaled Sharrouf a much tougher sentence if he had not claimed to have a mental illness.

FORMER NSW judge Anthony Whealy says he would have given Khaled Sharrouf a much tougher sentence if he had not pleaded guilty, or claimed to have a mental illness.

Sharrouf was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for his role in the 2005 Pendennis plot. He pleaded guilty to possessing items, six clocks and 140 batteries, connected with the preparation of a terrorist act, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ jail.

Mr Whealy said Sharrouf’s guilty plea reduced the sentence by 25 per cent and his schizophrenia also reduced the time he spent in prison. Sharrouf, now 33, served three years and nine months for his part in the plot.

“I was pretty hard on him, I think,’’ Mr Whealy said yesterday.

“If he hadn’t pleaded guilty and hadn’t had the mental illness, it might have made a difference of another five to seven-year ­sentence.”

The NSW Supreme Court judgment details psychiatrists’ analysis of Sharrouf’s mental illness, and how exposure to illicit drugs — LSD, ecstasy and ­amphetamines — was “likely to have been a significant factor in the emergence of his chronic mental illness”.

Sharrouf released a statement on Thursday claiming his mental illness was a fraud, a ruse he used to beat whatever charges he happened to be fighting.

“I played the government like ignorant children,’’ he said.

“I was never mentally ill, not then, nor now.’’

Sharrouf’s examining psychiatrists saw it differently. According to assessments conducted as part of his terror trial, Sharrouf was schizophrenic, prone to hallucin­ations when off his meds.

He was also diagnosed with a depressive anxiety disorder.

Clinical notes produced by his GP under subpoena state: “Mr Sharrouf has a history of psychotic symptoms over the past few years and has been diagnosed to be ­suffering from a schizophrenic ­illness”.

Mr Whealy said he did not believe Sharrouf’s statements this week that he was not mentally ill.

Police who locked up Sharrouf as part of the Pendennis raids describe a moody, volatile man whose days were spent praying at Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque or knocking about his Wiley Park home with his Anglo-Australian wife, Tara Nettleton, and their three small children.

He was a trusted member of the group, but not a senior one.

“He was a bit of a gofer,’’ said Peter Moroney, a former member of the NSW Police Joint Counter-Terrorism Team. “He was trusted as the muscle, as the security, but not as a mastermind.’’

The head of the al-Risalah Islamic Centre, and Sharrouf’s friend, Wissam Haddad, acknowledged Sharrouf had a “dominant” personality, but denied he was a dangerous psychopath. “He doesn’t — I don’t like to use profanity — he doesn’t take crap from anyone,’’ Mr Haddad said.

Additional reporting: Paul Maley