Alleged crook ‘caught on listening device’
Karen Sweeney |
A man in custody over his alleged involvement in three Melbourne drive-by shootings has been hit with more charges.
Ibrahim El-Sayah was allegedly caught on listening devices chatting explicitly with girls as young as 12.
El-Sayah, whose wife Yasemin Ercan is also charged over the shootings, scoffed as the charges were outlined during a bail application on Thursday.
He’s accused of using a carriage service to transmit indecent communications and explicit material, and in an offensive manner
Police officer Simon Dunn-Vaughan said that in December last year El-Sayah was recorded in his car talking to girls in Brisbane.
He said one of the girls told El-Sayah she was 13 before he then asked the other girl if he could ejaculate in her mouth.
Mr Dunn-Vaughan said El-Sayah then asked how old the girl was and she told him she was 12.
The conversation was captured on a listening device.
In another recorded conversation El-Sayah allegedly told his cousin “don’t worry cuz, they’re all 15”.
El-Sayah is behind bars, charged over three shootings in Melbourne in July 2020.
Mr Dunn-Vaughan said listening device recordings linked El-Sayah and his wife to the shootings.
It’s alleged they were in the car with the alleged shooter when eight shots were fired from an assault rifle at the Akkar Bakery in Reservoir.
They’re also accused of being present when shots were fired from a handgun at a car in Hadfield three days later.
It’s alleged they believed the car belonged to the girlfriend of an associate, but police say the wrong house was targeted and the woman lived further down the street.
Shots were also fired at an unoccupied house in Lalor a short time later, fired from the same assault weapon as was involved in the first drive-by.
Mr Dunn-Vaughan said five shots were fired into the empty house, where another associate had previously lived.
The bullets hit the house next door, going through a window and two bedrooms before becoming lodged in an internal wall.
The officer said he understood the shootings were linked to ongoing disputes between two Middle Eastern crime syndicates.
He said there had been tit-for-tat and retaliatory shootings and that these incidents were allegedly linked to a bigger feud.
The bail application in Melbourne Magistrates Court is continuing.
AAP