By Sarah McPhee
A Sydney man has admitted to shooting a gun through his garage ceiling which hit his wife as she lay in bed, causing life-changing spinal injuries, before he abandoned her in a hospital driveway.
CCTV captured Kamal El Jamal as he drove a white Mercedes-Benz sedan into the emergency bay at Bankstown Hospital on January 12, 2023, following the incident at a Condell Park home.
In the video, El Jamal can be seen getting out of the car and running to open the passenger door, prompting paramedics to rush over with a stretcher and treat Georgina Vlahos, who had serious injuries to her torso.
El Jamal, dressed in all black, then vanished down the street. Following a four-week manhunt, the 35-year-old was dramatically arrested by tactical police on the roof of a Picnic Point home.
El Jamal faced Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Vlahos whilst being reckless to causing her actual bodily harm, and using a pistol without a licence or permit.
Kamal El Jamal (left) pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a string of charges relating to the shooting.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Crown prosecutor Emma Blizard said Vlahos had been in a bedroom on the second storey of the home, in the only bed, while El Jamal was downstairs when he “discharged a gun into the ceiling”.
“The purpose of that remains unknown,” the prosecutor said.
The bullet travelled through the garage ceiling, floorboards and mattress, causing multiple injuries to Vlahos, including to her spinal cord, resulting in a loss of motor function and feeling, the court heard.
Georgina Vlahos was shot as she lay in bed.
“The victim will never walk again,” Blizard said.
According to the agreed facts, the gun was fired around noon, but it was not until “approximately 30 minutes later” that El Jamal yelled out to a neighbour “after he discovered that a bullet he had fired had struck Ms Vlahos”.
“The offender carried the victim down the stairs, put her in the passenger seat of her car, and drove her at speed to Bankstown Hospital,” the facts state.
El Jamal yelled out “Help, you’ve got to come and help her”, and told paramedics, “I just found her like this”.
After running away, he told a friend he “needed to borrow a van to move some boxes”. He cleaned the crime scene and gathered the bedsheets, doona and pillows into black garbage bags.
El Jamal’s barrister Ertunc Ozen, SC, conceded the victim’s injuries were “very serious”, but argued they “occurred as a result of the offender being significantly affected by prohibited drugs”.
“It is not alleged that he intended to harm her or anyone else,” he said.
Blizard, who applied for El Jamal to be taken into custody ahead of sentencing, submitted it was an “extremely grave” example of the offence.
She said police found 10 bullet holes at the scene, and whilst it was not known whether they occurred on the same day or prior occasions, it meant it was “not an isolated shot”.
The prosecutor said El Jamal had also been on parole for drug offences at the time.
Kamal El Jamal has been taken into custody ahead of sentencing over the shooting.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
The court heard El Jamal previously spent seven months at the embattled Connect Global rehabilitation centre near Newcastle, which is set to close, and was bailed in September to a private rehabilitation facility in Mudgee.
Ozen, who opposed the detention application, said staff at the current facility had advised El Jamal may need two more months to complete his cycle of rehabilitation for his long-standing drug addiction. He argued it was in the interests of the offender and community for that to occur.
Ozen invited the judge to look at a photograph of his client upon arrest and the “stark difference” to his appearance in court. He said the “proof is in the pudding” and “the rehabilitation is working”.
El Jamal has also been subject to electronic monitoring by Bailsafe, a private company which the Law Society of NSW this week warned “may have ceased operations” without notice to the court or those being monitored.
Ozen said if his client remained on bail, the monitoring company could switch from Bailsafe to Allied Universal.
Regarding the shooting, Ozen said it was “not an offence that occurs within the context of ongoing domestic violence”, that it was not a case where there was any alleged “animosity” with the victim, and his client had no similar matters on his record.
He said while El Jamal had fled the hospital, there was “very clear evidence that this man, having become aware of the gravity of the result of his actions, did what he could to get his partner the necessary assistance”.
Ozen anticipated the court would hear evidence Vlahos needs significant day-to-day assistance and “wishes” for El Jamal “to reside with her” as she would rely on him in the future. He indicated he would be pushing for El Jamal to receive an intensive corrections order (ICO), which is a term of imprisonment served in the community.
However, the prosecutor cited the relevant law which states an ICO is not available for an offence involving the discharge of a firearm.
Chief Judge Sarah Huggett was not satisfied El Jamal had demonstrated special or exceptional circumstances to remain on bail ahead of sentencing, describing the evidence from his rehabilitation centre as “vague”.
El Jamal was not immediately detained. Huggett varied his conditions overnight so that he could attend a pre-booked two-hour appointment with a forensic psychiatrist on Thursday morning to inform his future sentencing.
He was ordered to return to court by 1pm. El Jamal arrived at 1.06pm and was taken into custody.
El Jamal’s solicitor Talal Krayem apologised for the six-minute delay, telling the court his client was exchanging “a number of kisses and cuddles” with family.
A non-publication order over Wednesday’s proceedings was lifted on Thursday afternoon. El Jamal will be sentenced at a later date.
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