Details of convicted double murderer Jacob Elliott’s criminal behaviour before his arrest over the deadly drive-by shooting at the Love Machine nightclub in Prahran have been revealed in court.
The 21-year-old appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday via an audiovisual link from Barwon Prison.
Jacob Elliott was found guilty of two counts of murder last month.
He was sentenced to life in prison last month for the murder of security guard Aaron Khalid Osmani and patron Richard Arow in 2019. He must serve at least 29 years before he is eligible for parole.
On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to several other charges, including drug possession, car theft and driving without a licence.
In one instance in September 2018, Elliott was caught by police with a bag of methamphetamine hidden in his underwear. Officers also found a ziplock bag full of cannabis in the foot well of the car he was travelling in with three associates. Elliott claimed the drugs were his.
His lawyer, Una Ebsworth, told the court that Elliott’s conditions in custody were onerous and argued for any additional sentencing to be served at the same time as his existing life sentence.
She said Elliott was being held in isolation at a long-term management unit at Barwon Prison due to a shortage of suitable arrangements, which meant he had limited access to outdoors, programs and conversation.
“He spent the entirety of the pandemic in a custodial facility. He had no access to in-person visits during this period of time,” Ebsworth said. “He’s been in a state of suspense around finalisation of his trial [for the Prahran shooting].”
The court heard Elliott’s teenage years had been shaped by his father, slain underworld figure Nabil Maghnie, who had exerted a “gradual but pervasive criminal influence” over him.
Elliott, who was born out of a “fleeting relationship” between Maghnie and his mother, dropped out of school and began handling stolen cars and taking drugs after reconnecting with his father, the court heard.
Jacob Elliott (left) and his late father, Nabil Maghnie.
Ebsworth said Maghnie “started to draw [Elliot] back into the family fold” after being released from jail and had a “gradual but pervasive criminal influence” on Elliott, who had been raised by his mother and grandparents.
“Around this time, when he was 15, he went to live with the Maghnie family and left school,” Ebsworth said. He later began using cannabis, ice and cocaine.
In May 2019, he was caught running a stop sign while driving a car without a licence.
A month after that, when he was under surveillance over the Love Machine shooting, he was spotted by police picking up a stolen car from a home in Mill Park. The car had been stolen earlier that year from Glenroy.
When police recovered the vehicle, they found cigarette butts, disposable gloves, a black balaclava and a red fuel can inside.
Magistrate Rodney Crisp sentenced Elliott to an additional month of imprisonment for each of the new offences to be served at the same time.
“I will leave it at that,” Crisp told the court.
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