Over and out
And that brings to a close day seven of this segment of the inquest into the deaths of Tori Johnson, Katrina Dawson and gunman Man Haron Monis. Here’s a taste of what we’ve learned today:
- A Channel Seven security manager, Scott McIlveena, told the inquest of Monis’ protests outside the network’s Martin Place offices, where he would be aggressive, “very vocal”, and difficult to reason with. He rushed at TV hosts Melissa Doyle and David Koch one day, shouting “David Koch is the boss. He’s a killer and terrorist.”
- A journalist with Today Tonight, David Richardson, revealed how Monis’ campaign writing letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers came to his attention, and was covered on the show.
- Amanda Morsy, a woman Monis courted for six months in 2003, remembered him as a reserved man who “just wanted to fit in to any group”. She said he drove at least four cars, lavished her with gifts and “seemed quite cashed up”.
- An associate, Ahmad Alaei, told the inquest that Monis had claimed to possess $2m in cash and was looking for another $500,000 to invest in a business. He never revealed the source of the money, but was arrested in 2013 owing Alaei more than $9,000.
Thanks for sticking with us. We’ll have a wrap and another episode of our podcast up before day’s end.
Morsy admits to being a little credulous about what Monis told her about himself, telling the inquest: “I believe anything anyone would say.”
We’ve seen so many different Monis’ over the past fortnight: the political refugee, the unhinged cleric, the bikie. The Monis that Morsy knew drank alcohol, dressed in western clothing, and never claimed to be a sheikh.
It’s hard to say anything solid about this inscrutable man. Even with his life under coronial examination he remains an ephemeral figure. Only the pain and suffering he left behind is certain.
Morsy is likely to come out of this hearing looking a bit foolish. Already she’s being tagged as “Monis’ girlfriend”, which she wasn’t. Nonetheless she’s just said something about the man she knew for six months in 2003 that sticks.
Asked her impressions of Monis, she answers:
[He was] just reserved. He just wanted to fit in to any group.
Maybe that’s the best insight we’re going to get.
The pair eventually stopped courting, after Monis indicated he was looking to marry Morsy and her mother declared “she didn’t feel comfortable with him”. For good reason too: Monis had told the mother that she had been cursed at birth, and that neither her nor her daughter would ever find love. Charming.
Interestingly, he had already met his former partner, Noleen Hayson Pal, at the time, and married her that same year, 2003.
Updated
Well how about this: Monis apparently got around in several cars, among them a Mercedes, a Jeep and a Peugot, which he lent to Morsy.
Surreally, he owned the number plates: MNH 001, MNH 002, MNH 003 and MNH 004.
He also claimed to be quite cashed up, offering at a group dinner to finance one of Morsy’s friend’s businesses to the tune of $20,000.
He came across as someone who was very well off.
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Up now, Amanda Morsy. In about 2003, she met a man she knew as Michael Hayson. They went out briefly, always in groups, but “quite often” over about six months.
In a fairly disastrous bit of matchmaking, a friend of Morsy’s had set up the pair, thinking they would hit it off.
He said he came from Romania, he was in his mid-30s.
Both were untrue.
He was very kind, generous, intelligent. But he kept to himself, didn’t know a lot about him personally ... He would pay for everything, he was generous that way
He lavished Morsy with a 28 carat gold necklace, clothing, even use of his car.
Her mother had doubts though.
Initially she felt he was a bit too generous, kept to himself, like she didn’t quite feel comfortable knowing he was so secretive.
Monis, who at this stage was running his “spiritual consultation” business, was never contactable after 8pm, claiming that was when he worked.
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In 2013 a neighbour called Alaei telling him Monis had been arrested by the police. He never saw him again. He’s still owed more than $9,000 in back-rent.
Alaei, being a basically decent guy, finally agreed to help Monis in 2013. He allowed Monis and his partner to stay in a house Alaei owned, the gunman claiming it would help him with this legal dispute I can’t mention.
One day the police visited Alaei. They told Monis about the raft of allegations, including being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, that were hanging over the so-called sheikh. “This is a dangerous person,” Alaei says the police told him.
He confronted Monis.
He said calm down, relax, he have nothing to hide from me, you can open everything ... This is my problem, you nothing anything in the middle.
Monis approached Alaei yet another time, in 2013, on this occasion asking for a job in his network of car washing businesses. Monis said it would help him with a legal dispute - the details of which I’m afraid I can’t reveal. Unsurprisingly, Alaei did not see in Monis a promising employee.
Updated
The other part of Monis’ scheme was that Alaei contribute $500,000. After their 2011 discussion, Monis began to hassle Alaei with ideas on how to drum up the cash: refinancing his house, selling property in Iran, but not applying for a loan from a Western bank - Monis considered that to be haram, or forbidden.
Alaei is recounting a discussion he had with Monis in 2011 in which the gunman claimed to have $2m in cash he was looking to invest in a business. He claimed the money had been obtained legally from another country, but “he did mention which country”.
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Alaei first met Monis, then known as Mohammed Manteghi, in 1998 through friends.
The second time they met Monis began to open up a little, telling the now-familiar story about his time in Iran: that he was a cleric who had fallen out with the Iranian regime.
Alaei says this surprised him:
All people run away from sheikhs in Iran. Why this guy, sheikh, run away from Iran?
He says Monis was reluctant to engage with the Iranian community in Australia. Alaei was also a little dubious on Monis’ claim to be an ayatollah.
Updated
Morning tea dispensed with, we’re now hearing from Ahmad Alaei, listed as an “associate of Monis”.
He’s a middle-aged gent, dressed in a dark suit with black hair and a salt-and-pepper beard. He will be giving evidence through a Farsi interpreter.
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During a second protest, when then-Sunrise hosts Melissa Doyle and David Koch ventured out into Martin Place to sign autographs, Monis “rushed at the talent yelling, ‘You are killers and terrorists’,” McIlveena says in his statement.
Monis yelled:
David Koch is the boss. He’s a killer and terrorist.
McIlveena stood in his path and asked him to keep his distance. “He complied with that, he didn’t push any further, he just complied with that,” he says. “He continued to be quite vocal.”
Interestingly, McIlveena says that Channel 7 talent are kept from doing outside broadcasts in Martin Place for security reasons at least once per week.
Updated
McIlveena first encountered Monis outside Channel 7’s Martin Place building on 16 June 2008. He was protesting the depiction of Dr Mohamed Haneef on a news segment. (More on the risible Haneef affair here).
“He was giving out pamphlets stating ‘War on Islam’,” McIlveena says.
Among other tiresome claims, Monis’ pamphlets read: “If you want to kill people, why not use the tools of your own trade like a plague or disease or something? Why go into an area which you’re clearly unqualified in?”
McIlveena says he tried to engage Monis, “but there was no particular reasoning with this person on that matter”. His manner was aggressive, “very vocal”, he says.
Did McIlveena feel personally threatened? “Not at all,” he says. But he did fear for Mel and Kochie, the hosts of Sunrise, one of the Channel 7 programs specifically mentioned in Monis’ writings.
As a result of the protest both hosts stayed in the studio, rather than going out into Martin Place for a live broadcast.
Updated
Now in the box: Scott McIlveena, a beefy bloke in a dark suit responsible for coordinating security at Channel Seven’s Martin Place HQ.
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Richardson says the Today Tonight report prompted Monis to emerge from hiding, the first confirmation that he existed. “Until then we didn’t know if he was real, a ghost, a creation, an avatar,” he says.
Monis made two complaints to Acma, the media industry watchdog. Both were rejected.
A few months later Monis began to linger around the entrance to Channel 7’s Martin Place headquarters, dressed in robes and chains, protesting his innocence.
Today Tonight made calls to some prominent Muslims including Keysar Trad and the then-Grand Mufti of Australia, Taj El-Din Hilaly.
None knew Monis, though Trad said he had heard of him and was also trying to establish the man’s identity. We’ve previously heard that Monis went by more than 30 names.
“They had been looking into the identity of this so-called sheikh for at least a year,” Richardson says.
“[Trad] challenged Sheikh Haron to come and make himself known to their community.”
He says the prominent Muslims he spoke with looked upon Monis’ actions poorly. “I think like the families who received the letters they weren’t impressed.”
The segment in question was titled “Sheikh Attack”. It’s been shown to the inquest but a non-publication order - made just now - prevents us from posting it here.
Suffice to say it quotes from the despicable letters Monis and two other women sent to the families of deceased soldiers, and takes in lots of outrage from families members, military experts and prominent Muslims.
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He’s talking about a 2010 segment of Today Tonight that focused on Monis and the offensive letters he was sending the families of deceased Australian soldiers.
Richardson says the show’s producers heard rumours of someone purporting to be a sheikh who was sending the letters in question. Their investigations led them to Monis’ website. There he bragged about his contact with the bereaved families: “He wasn’t shy about boasting about what he’d done”, Richardson says.
In fact, Monis kept a register on his website of each family he had emailed.
The first thing Today Tonight found were videos: two women purporting to speak on behalf of Sheikh Haron.
Updated
First up is David Richardson, a reporter with Today Tonight, the somewhat infamous current affairs program which ceased transmission here on the east coast some years ago, but is still broadcast in the west.
Today's witnesses
Here are the witnesses for this morning. The evidence will continue until about 1pm. We will hear from:
David Richardson, Channel Seven journalist
Scott McIlveena, Channel Seven security manager
Ahmad Alaei (through an interpreter), former associate of Monis
Amanda Morsy, former associate of Monis
Updated
Welcome
Good morning, welcome to day seven of this phase of the coronial inquest into the deaths of Sydney siege hostages Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson and gunman Man Haron Monis.
On Monday the inquest heard from lawyers for Monis and Sylvia Martin, a social worker who delivered an incisive character analysis of the man we’ve spent the last two weeks learning about.
When she interviewed the gunman in 2011, Martin found he was “a man who sought attention”, who believed he was “a hero in his own story”. She went on: “[He was] someone who likes to feel important, who needs to feel like a hero, or someone who needs to be admired”.
Today we hope to unravel more about this enigmatic figure. I’ll post a witness list shortly. Interestingly, it includes Channel 7 reporters and security staff, suggesting we might get an insight into Monis’ relationship with the network, which was rumoured to be his initial target last December when he took 18 hostages in Martin Place. Stick with us for updates throughout the day.
Listen also to this 10-minute podcast my colleagues Bridie Jabour, Monica Tan and I have been recorded at the end of each hearing day. You can stream the latest episode here and all five are in the iTunes library here.
