Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Sydney 2000 – evil in the suburbs
Sunday Times ^ | Augustus 18 2002 | Cindy Wockner

Posted on 08/17/2002 6:42:52 PM PDT by knighthawk

THERE are condoms scattered in the Corona's glovebox, female clothing on the back seat.

There's a man named Sam, a white van that pops up more than once, a $50 note at the Harbour Bridge toll booth and a city so dazzled by the Olympic flame that it has taken its eyes off the cockroach corners.

We're waiting for Cathy Freeman to breast the tape, but three detectives are connecting dots – starting to understand there is a group out there preying on teenage girls, communicating via mobile phone and masking their intent in Arabic.

While their colleagues took a $25 Olympic secondment bonus, three officers led by Detective Sergeant Michael Porta watched surveillance tapes frame by frame, painstakingly searched mobile phone records and began to hunt the hunters.

And then this guy's standing at the sergeant's desk asking questions about his mates. He's just committed a rape.

These bastards have so much front it's frightening.

Constable Tamer Kilani's got a copper's instinct. A gut feeling for no good.

Twenty-two days before the Olympic opening ceremony, when the brass was shining its buttons and the streets were in coloured flags, something caught Constable Kilani's eye.

Four men standing around an unremarkable brown Toyota Corona in Wattle St, Punchbowl. Nothing odd about that, but something didn't feel right.

Constable Kilani called in a registration check, made a U-turn as he learnt it was expired. The car was already speeding away.

The constable planted his foot; the four abandoned the vehicle and dived for cover.

Just 15km from the site which would soon host 651 athletes and 500,000 spectators, Constable Kilani called for back-up and ran after them. They stopped and sneered.

These four young and arrogant males of Lebanese origin knew Constable Kilani, an Arabic-speaking Muslim officer. And he knew them. There was no use running. He knew their names, knew where they lived.

It was 2.15pm on August 24, 2000. Back-up arrived and Constable Kilani and the others started searching the men and the brown car.

One of the men, a 17-year-old TAFE student who called himself Sam, had a condom in his pocket.

Constable Kilani opened the car's glovebox. His eyes were drawn to five loose condoms and some women's clothing in the back seat.

He knew that detectives attached to the Child Protection Enforcement Agency were investigating at least four different gang rapes and attacks on young women in the area by males of Middle-Eastern appearance.

The men were taken back to Bankstown Police Station for questioning about the car and its lack of registration. They mouthed off all the way.

Then something very curious happened. A 15-year-old in a tracksuit came to the police station counter wanting to know what was happening to his mates.

The devil is in the detail, and the officers knew that it must be more than coincidence that this arrogant teenager fitted the description of an offender from an earlier incident.

That day, as the Olympic torch made its slow journey from Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour, Strike Force Sayda came into existence – with three dedicated detectives.

What would ultimately be learnt about the sickening activities of the young men in the car and their extended group during August 2000 would reveal an ugly underbelly of Sydney and a cultural conflict that would shake the city's foundations.

Later, sitting in the dock of court LG4, Sam watched, an arrogant sneer on his face, as his barrister suggested his young victim had moaned with pleasure in a putrid, stinking Bankstown public toilet. In the witness box her face contorted with disgust and disbelief.

Sam and two of the others in the car with him on August 24 would ultimately be convicted for their roles in the degrading six-hour gang rape of the young woman we will call Jane.

As Sydney churned on to its second anniversary of the 2000 Olympics, the nation heard how these three young men – together with 11 others, all of Lebanese origin – had, six days after the car was pulled over at Punchbowl, brutally gangraped Jane at three locations, taunting her and calling her an "Aussie pig".

When it seemed to be over, Jane straightened her knee-length black skirt, splashed some water on her face and, in fright, took a few tentative steps outside the toilet.

A dark-skinned woman known only as Mary offered her help, then delivered her back to the rapists.

While Jane's saviour turned out to be her enemy two other young women, who we will call Nicki and Amanda, were luckier.

It was 12.30am on August 11 when Anna and Con Christodolou, on their way home from a night out, turned into the darkness of Narellan St at Greenacre.

Near the corner of Northcote Ave, they saw two traumatised young women huddled together and calling for help.

They stopped reluctantly, Mr Christodolou fearing it might be a set-up. But after hearing the girls' story they drove to a nearby house to call police, then waited with the terrified pair.

Nicki and Amanda had fallen prey to the same group of young males as Jane would 20 days later.

On August 10, night shoppers at Chatswood on Sydney's north shore were unaware of the evil intent lurking among them.

Eight young men including Sam's older brother – an 18-year-old customer service employee with State Rail – had moved out of their comfort zone in the west and moved north in search of prey.

Among them were a 17-year-old who worked at a paving business and who had gone to school with Sam, a 17-year-old who would be described by his victims as "the fat guy", his 16-year-old friend, 18-year-old apprentice bricklayer Mahmoud Chami and Belal Hajeid.

All of them lived in the Greenacre area and were part of a tightknit group of friends.

As the evening wore on they moved into hunting mode, lurking around sidewalk cafes in Anderson St.

Nicki and Amanda, friends aged 17 and 18, finished their Thursday night shopping and were waiting for their bus home when four males sauntered over to chat.

Soon another four males joined the group. Amanda accepted a cigarette and before long they had agreed to go for a drive with the men to smoke some marijuana.

Together with four males, Nicki and Amanda got into an old white van which some in the group called a "shaggin' wagon". There were no seats in the back – only foam.

The other four males went in a red Toyota.

On the Harbour Bridge the van driver, who has never been caught, handed a $50 note to the operator to pay the $2.20 toll.

All the while the men conversed between vehicles in Arabic on their mobile phones.

About 11pm the white van finished its journey – at Northcote Park, Greenacre. But instead of the promised marijuana there was terror and degradation – as the women were forced to repeatedly perform oral sex on eight men.

The attack on Nicki and Amanda was, at this stage, the tip of the iceberg.

There had been two earlier attacks upon teenage girls, one of whom escaped from a train after being indecently assaulted by a group of four young men, including the fat guy, and another who had been forced to perform oral sex on males in a park.

Police were trying to establish links.

One would come on August 12 when an old white van very much like the "shaggin' wagon" turned in to the public parking bays at Gosling Park in Greenacre about 9.30pm, in convoy with a blue hatchback.

Sitting inside a red four-door hatchback already parked there was a 16-year-old girl we will call Cathy. Dressed in black pants and blue woollen jumper, she watched with rising fear as eight young men got out of the van. They included Sam's older brother, the railway employee who told her he also was called Sam. There were three more men in the blue car.

Earlier that night Cathy's mobile telephone had rung at her home at Glenwood Park.

Sam, whom she had met eight months earlier at McDonalds, invited her on a drive to the city. He arrived between 8.30 and 9pm, in a red four-door hatchback with two other males. Mobile phones ran hot as the young men called friends, speaking in Arabic which Cathy did not understand, organising the posse for that night's rape. Cathy was dragged by the hair, held down by up to a dozen men and raped twice at gunpoint.

As news of that attack reached the ears of Sgt Porta a link was being made – a white van had been involved in both the August 10 and August 12 attacks and the name Sam was becoming a common thread. So was the use of mobile phones.

Olympic euphoria was building, and so was the evil lurking in the Greenacre and Bankstown areas as the days of August wore on.

They were crimes born of elaborate planning, where young white women were being made pawns in an increasingly violent outpouring of sexual subjugation.

As the three detectives assigned to the cases worked to establish links, Police Commissioner Peter Ryan was out to cement his reputation as the best Olympic security adviser in the world and help land himself a job with the Athens Olympics.

As Commissioner Ryan hosted yet another Olympics-related news conference announcing the Stadium Australia "lockdown", Sgt Porta and Detective Senior Constable Olly O'Keefe carefully studied each rolling frame from a railway surveillance video taken at Bankstown railway station on the afternoon of August 30, the day of Jane's rape.

They watched intently as, among the hundreds of people getting on and off trains, the young victim came into view along with five men.

The officers sat up straighter in their seats as they realised that three of the men – Sam, the fat guy and a 16-year-old – had been in the car pulled over six days earlier by Constable Kilani. The police net was closing.

That night midnight raids were conducted on the homes of Sam, the fat guy and the 16-year-old.

Swept up in the growing Olympic excitement, people were queuing for hours at SOCOG's Broadway headquarters to buy Olympic tickets.

The officers of Strike Force Sayda were not among them; they were busy getting copies of the mobile phone records of their suspects.

Scanning the calls made on the nights of the different rapes, they discovered that the men had been in constant contact with each other on those days.

Furthermore, their mobile phone signals had been bouncing off towers closest to the rape sites – showing they had, in fact, been in the areas at the relevant times.

With 10 days to go to the Olympics, IOC boss Juan Antonio Samaranch was being feted by Sydney's Olympic heavyweights on a tour of the Olympic village.

That night, 16-year-olds who we will call Laura and Ellen were taken to a fibro Villawood home with a hole in the front wall and a slashed flyscreen.

Inside that family home with its old-fashioned kitchen they were separated from each other, taken to different rooms and repeatedly raped at knifepoint while the men employed a sick game, playing them off against each other.

As detectives learnt with horror of yet another gang rape it became evident to everyone that this was a far more serious problem than at first thought – and Inspector Kim Mackay from Crime Agencies was assigned to head up the strike force.

This week the leader of the gang of rapists was jailed for 55 years.

Sydney will never be the same again.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: australia; gangrapes; sydney
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last

1 posted on 08/17/2002 6:42:52 PM PDT by knighthawk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: MizSterious; rebdov; Nix 2; green lantern; BeOSUser; Brad's Gramma; dreadme; keri; Turk2; ...
Ping
2 posted on 08/17/2002 6:43:37 PM PDT by knighthawk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Note the part with the 'Mary' person.
3 posted on 08/17/2002 6:44:14 PM PDT by knighthawk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: knighthawk
55 years at least one country has correct sentancing for such crimes
4 posted on 08/17/2002 6:49:18 PM PDT by Crazymonarch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Crazymonarch
And he will have to do at least 40 years of the 55.

It's still too soft considering their crimes.
5 posted on 08/17/2002 6:55:18 PM PDT by knighthawk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: knighthawk
Not necessarily its an Australian prison filled with Australian 'pigs' that know hes coming
6 posted on 08/17/2002 6:59:11 PM PDT by Crazymonarch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Crazymonarch
I too hope these things suffer as did Jeffrey Dahmer.

But Justice will not be done until that "Mary" POS is identified, convisted,and incarcerated.

7 posted on 08/17/2002 7:06:12 PM PDT by kaylar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Crazymonarch
No they don't.

The proper sentence for such crimes is an immediate forfeiture of life. Preferrably at the end of a good stout hempen rope.

L

8 posted on 08/17/2002 7:08:01 PM PDT by Lurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: knighthawk
Tell us about the people of "Lebanese descent" on Australian soil. Are they the children of legitimate immigrants? Are they actively practicing the "religion of peace"? Are they going to try to tell us that they are Lebanese Christians?

I hope the Aussies clean house on these criminals and send them back to their 3rd world Arab shithole or incarcerate them for life.

9 posted on 08/17/2002 7:12:30 PM PDT by johniegrad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: knighthawk
I seem to remember reading somewhere that non-muslim women are considered to be lootable property whenever muslims conquer a non-muslim area. Thanks to the immigration policies of the western nations, muslims are in the process of conquering us without a fight, and are already starting to claim their new harems.
10 posted on 08/17/2002 7:16:13 PM PDT by Korth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: johniegrad
Since they are young I take it they are born in Australia, but they also could moved with their parents.

The people arrested for the rapings are muslims. This is mentioned in other articles.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/13/1026185124700.html
11 posted on 08/17/2002 7:20:11 PM PDT by knighthawk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Lurker
With the cage or stocks in the square for a week beforehand...times have moved on,but in comparison to Britain where some guy just got 8 years for ripping out a 93 year old grandmothers heart and drinking its blood because he'd watched Buffy one too many times and wanted to be immortal, or some of the ridiculous sentances in the US its quite reasonable; murder often only gets 20 out in 12.
12 posted on 08/17/2002 7:23:29 PM PDT by Crazymonarch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: knighthawk; shaggy eel
Any of this crap going on in NZ? Specifically, in Hawkes Bay? How about NZ immigration laws for this type of trash?
13 posted on 08/17/2002 7:26:35 PM PDT by johniegrad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: knighthawk
There is a solution to this problem. And everyone knows what it is. But implementation...now, there's the rub.

One can, however, hope...

15 posted on 08/17/2002 7:34:17 PM PDT by neutrino
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Korth
Yes, that is very true.

Koran, sura 33:50
O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war, and the daughters of thine uncle on the father's side and the daughters of thine aunts on the father's side, and the daughters of thine uncle on the mother's side and the daughters of thine aunts on the mother's side who emigrated with thee, and a believing woman if she give herself unto the Prophet and the Prophet desire to ask her in marriage - a privilege for thee only, not for the (rest of) believers - We are Aware of that which We enjoined upon them concerning their wives and those whom their right hands possess - that thou mayst be free from blame, for Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.

From the hadith of Sahih Bukhari
Volume 5, Book 59, Number 362:
Narrated Ibn Umar:
Bani An-Nadir and Bani Quraiza fought (against the Prophet violating their peace treaty), so the Prophet exiled Bani An-Nadir and allowed Bani Quraiza to remain at their places (in Medina) taking nothing from them till they fought against the Prophet again) . He then killed their men and distributed their women, children and property among the Muslims, but some of them came to the Prophet and he granted them safety, and they embraced Islam. He exiled all the Jews from Medina. They were the Jews of Bani Qainuqa', the tribe of 'Abdullah bin Salam and the Jews of Bani Haritha and all the other Jews of Medina.

Volume 5, Book 59, Number 447:
The Prophet said to Sa'd,:
The Bani Quraiza have agreed to accept your verdict" Sa’d said, "Kill all their men and take their women and children as slaves" The Prophet replied, "You have judged according to God's Judgment"

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 280:
Narrated Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri:
When the tribe of Bani Quraiza was ready to accept Sad's judgment, Allah's Apostle sent for Sad who was near to him. Sad came, riding a donkey and when he came near, Allah's Apostle said (to the Ansar), "Stand up for your leader." Then Sad came and sat beside Allah's Apostle who said to him. "These people are ready to accept your judgment." Sad said, "I give the judgment that their warriors should be killed and their children and women should be taken as prisoners." The Prophet then remarked, "O Sad! You have judged amongst them with (or similar to) the judgment of the King Allah."

Koran, sura 8:41
And know that whatever ye take as spoils of war, lo! a fifth thereof is for Allah, and for the messenger and for the kinsman (who hath need) and orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, if ye believe in Allah and that which We revealed unto Our slave on the Day of Discrimination, the day when the two armies met. And Allah is Able to do all things.

After mohammeds army finished off the adult male portion of the Jewish tribe, his men took the woman as slaves. But mohammed was entitled for 1/5 of the booty. Amongst these woman was Safiya bint Huyai.

Safiya bint Huyai was allotted to a soldier called Dahia. But when Mohammed the ascetic heard of her 'incomparable beauty', he sent for Dahiya, paid him Safiya's price and married her. (Ibn Saad, al-Tabaqat, pp. 120-123).

Muslims claim she embraced islam at her own free will, but I doubt this, since they slaughtered her husband, family and friends.

From the hadith of SahihBukhari
Volume 2, Book 14, Number 68:
Narrated Anas bin Malik:
Allah's Apostle (p.b.u.h) offered the Fajr prayer when it was still dark, then he rode and said, 'Allah Akbar! Khaibar is ruined. When we approach near to a nation, the most unfortunate is the morning of those who have been warned." The people came out into the streets saying, "Muhammad and his army." Allah's Apostle vanquished them by force and their warriors were killed; the children and women were taken as captives. Safiya was taken by Dihya Al-Kalbi and later she belonged to Allah's Apostle go who married her and her Mahr was her manumission.

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 143:
Narrated Anas bin Malik:
The Prophet said to Abu Talha, "Choose one of your boy servants to serve me in my expedition to Khaibar." So, Abu Talha took me letting me ride behind him while I was a boy nearing the age of puberty. I used to serve Allah's Apostle when he stopped to rest. I heard him saying repeatedly, "O Allah! I seek refuge with You from distress and sorrow, from helplessness and laziness, from miserliness and cowardice, from being heavily in debt and from being overcome by men." Then we reached Khaibar; and when Allah enabled him to conquer the Fort (of Khaibar), the beauty of Safiya bint Huyai bin Akhtab was described to him. Her husband had been killed while she was a bride. So Allah's Apostle selected her for himself and took her along with him till we reached a place called Sad-AsSahba,' where her menses were over and he took her for his wife. Haris (a kind of dish) was served on a small leather sheet. Then Allah's Apostle told me to call those who were around me. So, that was the marriage banquet of Allah's Apostle and Safiya. Then we left for Medina. I saw Allah's Apostle folding a cloak round the hump of the camel so as to make a wide space for Safiya (to sit on behind him) He sat beside his camel letting his knees for Safiya to put her feet on so as to mount the camel. Then, we proceeded till we approached Medina; he looked at Uhud (mountain) and said, "This is a mountain which loves us and is loved by us." Then he looked at Medina and said, "O Allah! I make the area between its (i.e. Medina's) two mountains a sanctuary as Abraham made Mecca a sanctuary. O Allah! Bless them (i.e. the people of Medina) in their Mudd and Sa (i.e. measures)."
16 posted on 08/17/2002 7:52:42 PM PDT by knighthawk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: johniegrad
I haven't heard of such cases in NZ. It could be to the fact that NZ has very strickt immigration laws, much strickter than Australia I heard.
17 posted on 08/17/2002 7:55:39 PM PDT by knighthawk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: spike_00
The ringleader got 55 years, but the others got off scott free, esp. the minors?

No, read the article in post 11. Here is an excerpt:

"Fourteen gang rapists have been convicted, or pleaded guilty, thanks to the courage of seven victims who testified for days in court as their tormentors smirked nearby, the men's families threatened them and defence lawyers suggested they had enjoyed the rapes."

18 posted on 08/17/2002 7:59:02 PM PDT by PistolPaknMama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: knighthawk
As if I didn't hate Muslims to the soles of my feet enough already...............
19 posted on 08/17/2002 8:02:21 PM PDT by RightOnline
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Korth
More from the hadith of Sahih Bukhari:

Volume 3, Book 34, Number 431:
Narrated Anas:
Amongst the captives was Safiya. First she was given to Dihya Al-Kalbi and then to the Prophet.

Volume 3, Book 34, Number 432:
Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:
that while he was sitting with Allah's Apostle he said, "O Allah's Apostle! We get female captives as our share of booty, and we are interested in their prices, what is your opinion about coitus interrupt us?" The Prophet said, "Do you really do that? It is better for you not to do it. No soul that which Allah has destined to exist, but will surely come into existence.

Volume 8, Book 77, Number 600:
Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:
That while he was sitting with the Prophet a man from the Ansar came and said, "O Allah's Apostle! We get slave girls from the war captives and we love property; what do you think about coitus interruptus?" Allah's Apostle said, "Do you do that? It is better for you not to do it, for there is no soul which Allah has ordained to come into existence but will be created."
20 posted on 08/17/2002 8:03:37 PM PDT by knighthawk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-72 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson