Gangland boss George Marrogi sprayed a prison guard with faeces and twice set fire to his cell during an almost year-long tirade against prison authorities over his treatment in custody.
Marrogi also blocked officers rushing in to put out one of the fires and assaulted a guard during one of his outbursts, which were fuelled by the belief he was the target of a campaign by prison officers to unfairly punish him.
George Marrogi squirted liquid faeces from a honey bottle onto the face and body of a prison guard.
Details of Marrogi’s chequered prison history were aired during a hearing at Sunshine Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, where the crime boss pleaded guilty to arson, intentionally damaging property, possessing a prohibited item and two counts of assault.
Dressed in a red tracksuit and sporting an unkempt beard and a black skullcap, the leader of the Notorious Crime Family appeared via video link from Barwon Prison.
Marrogi’s younger brother Jesse and mother Madlin Enwiya listened to the hearing remotely.
The court heard that in May 2023, an aggrieved Marrogi used two wires and a power socket to set fire to his high-security cell after staff denied his requests to use the prison phone.
Marrogi fed the fire with toilet paper and repeatedly tried to block authorities from putting out the blaze.
Eventually, he agreed to leave the cell and was taken to the hospital to get treated for chest pain. A chest X-ray revealed an internet dongle stuck inside his body.
Defence lawyer Peter Morrissey, SC, told the court Marrogi had swallowed the device about a year before and that it was badly corroded by the time surgeons removed it.
“The fact is that it had significantly degraded and was unable to be reconstituted when the authorities looked at it,” Morrissey said.
Meshilin Marrogi’s resting place.Credit: Facebook
Marrogi’s tirade against prison authorities ramped up in early 2024, following an attempt to steal and desecrate the body of his dead sister Meshilin “Mesh” Marrogi.
On January 28, prison guards at the Metropolitan Remand Centre in Ravenhall were handing out breakfast when Marrogi reached out through the trap door in his cell and sprayed faeces onto one of the guards from a honey bottle, yelling: “Eat this shit you c---s”.
Two months later, a handcuffed Marrogi kicked a guard as he escorted him to a scheduled video link court appearance, and about three weeks later he started a cell fire.
Morrissey said the outbursts had been prompted by a combination of life-altering events and a series of smaller incidents in custody that led Marrogi to believe he was the target of a campaign by prison authorities.
Marrogi was also sleep-deprived as a result of nighttime construction works inside the prison, and was experiencing extreme isolation as a result of being placed in solitary confinement, Morrissey told the court.
“The little things that might sound as if they are not life-shattering to us are life-shattering to a prisoner who has a life that’s confined down to their cell,” he said.
“Little insults, little inconveniences, end up looking like a full campaign, and whether they are or not is not relevant in this plea … here, that’s just the way it looked.”
Morrissey argued that Marrogi’s extreme conditions in custody, his plea of guilty and the fact he was already serving a lengthy sentence called for any additional jail time to be served concurrently.
George Marrogi and his late sister, Meshilin.
But prosecutor Liam Barry said Marrogi offended whenever he didn’t get his way and needed to be deterred.
Marrogi is currently serving a 37-year sentence for 2016 the murder of underworld figure Kadir Ors and a $55 million drug empire he was co-ordinating from prison.
Magistrate Mike Wardell acknowledged Marrogi’s confinement was extreme, but pointed out that negotiations between Marrogi and prison authorities to improve his situation had reached an impasse.
“We’ve now got this seemingly tit-for-tat situation happening,” he said.
Wardell described the attack on the prison guard in January as repugnant and said the two cell fires had put the health of prison staff at risk.
However, he concluded any additional jail time would have a limited effect and sentenced the crime boss to six months in prison to be served concurrently.
Marrogi will become eligible for parole in 2049 when he is in his 60s.
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