Australia - Drug thief 'had genitals set alight'
Drug thief 'had genitals set alight'
By Elissa Hunt
A DRUG thief was kidnapped, tied to a chair and tortured before being shot dead and set alight by rival dealers, a court has heard.
A Supreme Court jury was told his abductors set Michael Daou’s genitals on fire before shooting him twice in the head in November 2006, the Herald Sun reports.
The ringleaders then plotted to murder the girl they had used to lure Mr Daou to his death, prosecutor Gavin Silbert, SC, said.
Garry Hargrave, 52, his sons Adam, 28, and Aaron, 26, brothers Ngoc Bui, 23, and Quoc Bui, 25, and Kevin Ng, 23, have pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Garry Hargrave and Adam Hargrave have also denied a charge of conspiring to murder the female decoy who enticed Mr Daou to the park he was kidnapped from.
Mr Silbert told the jury in his opening address an informer who had helped in the murder had pleaded guilty and would be a witness against the six accused.
He said Garry Hargrave used his legitimate business, Logistics Plus, in Scoresby as a front for his family’s drug enterprise.
Both his sons, the Bui brothers, Mr Ng and the informer all worked for the drug business, the jury was told.
When one of their runners was robbed at gunpoint of 2000 ecstasy pills worth $20,000 they decided to punish Mr Daou, who was selling the missing drugs.
Mr Silbert said the informer would give evidence that all six accused took part in planning Mr Daou’s kidnap and all bar Garry Hargrave were present when he was tortured and killed.
He was assaulted, tied to a chair and had his pubic hair and genitals sprayed with an aerosol can, which were then ignited.
Tony Lewis, for Adam Hargrave, said the informer was the real killer, not his client.
His credibility as the central witness – given his own involvement in the crime – was a key issue in the case.
The trial before Justice Betty King is continuing.
