. . . . Cutting a deal with prosecution . . . .
_ G O D _
by John Silvester
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/lets-make-a-deal/2006/05/03/1146335804814.html?page=4
The tactic being used by the Purana anti-gangland taskforce
to break open Melbourne's underworld war was revealed
for the first time yesterday in open court. For more than a
year, police and lawyers have been playing a deadly and
secret version of Let's Make a Deal.
In the Supreme Court, Justice Bernie Teague sentenced
career criminal Keith George Faure to a minimum of 19
years for two contract killings. Faure was found guilty of
shooting fellow gunman Lewis Caine in Brunswick Street.
But since fighting the first case, he had a change of heart
and pleaded guilty to the murder of Lewis Moran, who was
shot dead in the Sydney Road Brunswick Club.
Faure is a vicious career criminal, involved in at least five
killings. He also once shot an unarmed policeman during
a bank robbery. He was a key figure in a vicious prison
war inside Pentridge prison. There is little chance he will
ever reform. He is no good. That is, except to the Purana
taskforce.
In sentencing Faure to a minimum term of just 19 years
rather than life with no minimum, Teague opened himself
to the usual rounds of critics, claiming the sentence was
under the odds.
Surely a career killer, who was prepared to murder for
cash, should be jailed for the rest of his life? But ultimately,
police and prosecutors concluded - and Teague agreed -
that Faure could be of more value in a witness box than
spending a lifetime in a prison cell.
Keith George Faure, 53, an old-style gangster, could not
have survived a lifetime of crime without being able to sniff
the wind. About five weeks ago, Faure asked Purana
detectives to visit him in jail. He was ready to talk. This
does not mean he had found a new sense of morality; he
simply knew that if he remained silent, they would throw
away the prison door key.
By cutting a deal with the prosecution to give evidence
against long-time associates in gangland murder trials -
and providing new leads on others yet to be charged -
he has given himself a chance of walking out of jail an
old, but free man.
With time served, he could be 71 when released. For
police, the idea of allowing Faure to dodge a life in jail
must have been repugnant. This was the man who was
convicted of shooting Senior Constable Michael Pratt
in the back during the robbery of an ANZ bank in Clifton
Hill on June 4, 1976. Faure shot Pratt as the off-duty
policeman tried to stop the robbery.
Pratt was awarded the George Cross for bravery, but
the injuries forced him to retire from the force.
The move to deal with Faure shows, publicly for the first
time, that police and prosecutors are prepared to deal
with the hands-on killers to gather sworn evidence against
those who pull the strings.
The Purana taskforce has adopted a tactic widely used in the US of turning alleged
hitmen into star witnesses. The most notorious was Salvatore "Sammy the Bull"
Gravano, a former underboss of the New York Gambino family.
Faure came to the negotiating table with a major bargaining chip. He was prepared to
talk about two men, one who cannot be named and another, Tony Mokbel, who cannot be
found.
Mokbel, Australia's best-known fugitive, is another who didn't get to a position of
power in the underworld without sensing when the tide had turned.
Facing certain jail as his tissue-thin defence in a cocaine-trafficking trial
collapsed, he skipped bail days before he was convicted and sentenced in absentia to
a minimum of nine years' jail.
But it was not the jail term that was his driving motivation to leave the party
before the last dance. He had learned that once-trusted underlings were dealing with
police.
According to Faure, his hit team was to be paid $150,000, by the unnamed man and
Mokbel, to kill Lewis Moran. A few days after the killing, he was paid $140,000. He
planned to get the remaining $10,000 later. He didn't get the chance.
In sentencing Faure yesterday, Teague said Moran's murder "was a callous, planned,
premeditated execution for money. To some people, life is not as sacred as it should
be. To some people, life is cheap".
Police were confident they could make a case against Mokbel for murder. So, it would
seem, was Mokbel himself. He was discovered missing on March 20, just days after he
was informed that the Purana taskforce was looking at him over several underworld
murders.
The value of Faure's evidence will ultimately be judged by juries in upcoming trials
as they weigh his insider status against his obvious self-interest.
But Teague said: "In your case, the indications are that the benefit from the
co-operation will be extremely high." Faure was reminded that if he tried to renege,
he could be re-sentenced less sympathetically.
There are others who have also turned. At last count, there were eight who have been
hidden away from public glare to give evidence at a later date.
One Melbourne gang that was built on unquestioned loyalty and drug money has been
destroyed. One of their hitmen is dead, three have been jailed and other key figures
are believed to be co-operating with police.
But it is not just the one side that is damaged. Faure was a freelance hitman
rumoured to have worked for another group. Only Purana would know what stories he is
prepared to tell.
But there can be no doubt that the much-vaunted underworld code of silence has been
smashed. Purana detectives and homicide investigators claim they have laid charges or
have made major inroads in 17 recent underworld killings. They say that in seven
cases, the gunmen were later killed in the underworld feud.
Detective Superintendent Richard Grant, the head of police tasked operations,
yesterday said: "Our aim is to destroy the code of silence so the crooks can't trust
each other."
He said police were increasingly prepared to cultivate key figures in crime
syndicates to act as informers. "We are willing to listen to what certain people have
to say and make recommendations to the Office of Public Prosecutions. Part of this is
about trying to be smart and innovative in targeting the criminal environment."
KEITH George Faure's father and grandfather were also gangsters. Grandfather Norman
Leslie Bruhn stood over cocaine dealers in the 1920s. Some things never change.
In June, 1927, Bruhn was shot five times as he went to collect his pay-off from a
drug dealer near Liverpool Street, Sydney. The hit was allegedly ordered by Snowy
Cutmore, who died with Squizzy Taylor in a shoot-out in Melbourne four months later.
Father Noel Ambrose Faure was one of Australia's best safe-crackers and an
influential member of the painters and dockers union during the docks wars of the
1960s.
Noel's son Keith was a killer, armed robber and career criminal. He was first charged
with breaking and entering when he was 11 and was said to have seen his first
gangland murder when he was eight. He has a long history of escape, theft and
violence. He gave his occupation as painter and docker, slaughterman and abalone
sheller.
Faure was found guilty of manslaughter over the killing of Shane Dennis Rowland, who
was shot to death in a Richmond house on May 1, 1976.
In the same year, he was convicted of a second count of manslaughter for killing
fellow inmate Alan Sopulak in Pentridge. The victim was stabbed nine times with a
sharpened butter knife.
Faure was lucky to avoid a third homicide trial. Within weeks of his release from
prison in 1987, he was involved in the armed robbery of a Thornbury jewellery shop
where the owner, Mario Sassano, was shot dead. It was at a time when the more
paranoid members of the underworld believed the armed robbery squad was hunting down
career bandits and executing them.
A homicide squad detective used the rumours to his advantage. He had a short message
passed on to Keith. Come to the homicide squad to be interviewed or risk having the
armed robbery squad shoot you in bed. The next day at 9am, Faure was at the St Kilda
Road Crime Department complex ready to be interviewed. Four men were charged over the
armed robbery and murder.
According to police, Faure used his own form of plea-bargaining. He gave one of his
co-accused a simple choice: plead guilty or die. The man pleaded guilty - a wise
choice.
The other three were then able to blame the guilty man for the murder. Faure was
sentenced to 13 years for the armed robbery but was not convicted of murder. Until
now.
In jail, he was a leader and headed a heavy faction inside Pentridge in the longest
and bloodiest "war" in an Australian prison. He fell out with stand-over man Mark
Brandon Read, who had his own crew, known as the Overcoat Gang because they wore
coats to hide their home-made weapons, even in summer.
Faure had his own team, KGB (Keith George's Boys). Over the years, there were more
than 100 attacks, including stabbings, bombings and bashings. The origins of the war
could be traced back to allegations that Read ate all the sausages promised to H
Division prisoners for Christmas one year. But the real power battle was over Read's
friend, Billy "The Texan" Longley, who was in prison at the time. Faure's painters
and dockers wanted Longley dead and they needed to get Read first.
"Keith George Faure represented the power in Pentridge in the 1970s. Every painter
and docker in jail backed Keithy. He represented the criminal version of the old
school tie," Read said.
In 1990, Faure was stabbed twice in the chest in Pentridge. He survived. Years later,
when he was released, he went to Tasmania to visit Read. The war was then officially
over.
But Read continued to haunt him. In April, 2002, Faure was in court again, this time
for driving without a licence.
The court was told that Faure was upset after seeing the movie Chopper, where a jail
character called "Keithy George" was stabbed to death in the opening scenes. Faure's
lawyer, Big Bernie "The Attorney" Balmer, told the court his client was so upset by
the film's treatment of his life that it had affected his judgement at the time in
question.
The movie won the Australian Film Industry best film award and Faure was banned from
driving for five years.
Faure was arrested by Special Operations Police in Geelong on May 19, 2004, in
Geelong and charged with the murder of Lewis Caine. He has spent nearly two years in
virtual solitary confinement and, according to one jail source, is "a broken man".
Read yesterday told The Age: "Keithy Faure was born an imbecile and has been losing
ground ever since. It amazes me that these people have the guts to pull the trigger
but don't have the guts to live with the consequences. Keithy should have known that
he was way too old to play these sort of games."
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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all COck-suckers
along with all institutions of the industrialized slavery and genocide.
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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvies, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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