Two prisoners who stabbed drug kingpin Tony Mokbel over a newspaper article naming him as a feared jail enforcer have been told to pull their heads in or end up drug-addled, lonely old men.
Teira Bennett and Eldea Teuira, both 22, bashed and stabbed Mokbel with shivs about eight times at Victoria’s Barwon Prison on February 11 last year, following Bennett’s 21st birthday party.
News Corp’s Herald Sun published a story the day before describing Mokbel as a feared bigwig and enforcer who had disrupted a jail extortion racket run by prisoners of Pacific Islander descent.
“You’re not an enforcer. This is what you get for talking to the screws you f***ing dog,” Bennett told Mokbel during the frenzied attack.
“You think you are an enforcer, well you are f***ing not you c***.”
As prison officers tried to stop them, Teuira told Bennett “happy birthday bro”.
Bennett was already serving a six year, two month sentence at the time, and Teuira a term of five years and 10 months, both for violent crimes and after becoming hooked on ice.
County Court of Victoria Judge Liz Gaynor on Wednesday handed both men an extra five years’ jail.
“You two young blokes, two-on-one, mauled and maimed a 53-year-old man. That’s what you did,” she said.
The judge found the attack was a direct result of the article and carried out to reinforce the dominance of Barwon’s Pacific Islander “G-Fam” group.
“When you’re 40 you see what G-Fam and the bros do for you,” she said.
“You will end up drug-addled, lonely old men.
“You may think you’re heroes within the jail but do you think in 20 years time that’s going to matter?
“When you’re out on the street desperately trying to score and nowhere to live and nowhere to sleep because everyone’s sick of you. Because you burned everyone off and all you G-Fam bros are scattered dead or in jail somewhere.
“Because that’s what it’s going to be.”
Mokbel almost died, was placed in an induced coma and had to have emergency brain surgery.
He had a collapsed right lung, displaced brain tissue, a fractured skull, broken jaw and a collapsed right lung. He has since recovered and did not want to assist police with prosecuting his attackers.
Bennett and Teuira admitted to intentionally causing serious injury to Mokbel, but Judge Gaynor found no other evidence of remorse.
The pair also admitted to recklessly causing injury to another prisoner stabbed while trying to intervene in the attack.
Bennett’s new 11-year, two-month sentence was backdated to August 2017 and he must serve eight years before becoming eligible to apply for parole.
Teuira’s sentence of 10 years and 10 months was backdated to November 2017, with a non-parole period of eight years and six months.
