‘You are never safe’: Grinning gunman jailed for murdering stranger outside boxing match
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A blood trail snaked along behind murder victim Ben Togiai as he lay dying on the footpath outside a boxing match with a gunshot wound to the chest.
The construction worker had never met his killer, but on Tuesday, grinning gunman Abdullah El Nasher was jailed for at least 22 years for opening fire on a crowd outside a Melbourne Pavilion boxing tournament and indiscriminately killing the stranger.
Ben Togiai.
On the night of the killing, Togiai – a recent father – was meant to be at his niece’s birthday party but instead decided to attend the boxing for the first time after his boss gave colleagues free tickets.
But as he left the Kensington crowd with dozens of others amid rising tensions inside, he was gunned down and left to die alone on the footpath, leaving behind a serpentine blood trail.
Another of El Nasher’s victims – kickboxer Omar Bchinnati – fled back inside with a gunshot wound to the left leg.
On Tuesday, El Nasher, 31, arrived at the Supreme Court of Victoria smiling and left smirking as supporters in an upstairs viewing gallery yelled “keep your head up” and “free my boy” as teary Togiai family members watched on.
Togiai’s mother Ruth sobs outside court.Credit: Eddie Jim
Ben Togiai’s mother Ruth Togiai, who uses a wheelchair following a battle with cancer, sobbed outside court after the sentencing.
“Our son will never be with us or his little girl ever again,” she said.
Justice Christopher Beale said about 8am on March 1, 2019, El Nasher was seen on CCTV attending his brother’s smash repair business in Epping, where he flashed a gun at a neighbour and told him “this is how we do business”.
About 6.30pm, he attended the Big Time Boxing event at the Melbourne Pavilion on the corner of Racecourse Road and Stubbs Street, with the main fight scheduled for 10pm.
Abdullah El Nasher (left) arrives at the Supreme Court.Credit: AAP
More than 1000 people were seated inside on numbered tables, including two tables of men were side by side – El Nasher on one and Togiai’s boss Bchinnati on the other.
“You are never safe,” a witness reported El Nasher saying.
Soon after, CCTV showed El Nasher leaving and returning with a gun. As those sitting at the two tables were eventually asked to leave, the gunman fired five shots towards the crowd gathering outside.
Shooter Osamma Allouche fired one round into the footpath nearby. He was later charged over the incident but found not guilty at trial.
On Tuesday, he attended court to support El Nasher, alongside more than a dozen family and friends. Extra security staff were brought in to separate them from the Togiai family.
Osamma Allouche was found not guilty in June of charges including murder and attempted murder.Credit: Eddie Jim
After the shooting, El Nasher fled to NSW, where he had previously served jail time. He was arrested a week later.
In June, a jury found El Nasher guilty of murdering Togiai and intentionally causing serious injury to Bchinnati. He also pleaded guilty to being a prohibited person who possessed and used a firearm.
The jury rejected that he was acting in self-defence, instead deciding he engaged in premeditated murder of less than 16 seconds.
The Togiai family leaving court.Credit: Eddie Jim
“Togiai and Bchinnati were your direct victims, but there were other indirect victims. Mr Togiai’s family and friends are devastated by his death,” Beale said.
Beale said he hoped the fact that El Nasher’s father had died when he was a child may provide him some insight into the tragedy.
“But your father died from natural causes, not gunned down in a public place,” Beale said.
“You robbed a little girl of a father.”
The court heard El Nasher, who stared vaguely around the courtroom and avoided looking at his victim’s family, was the second youngest of eight children raised in the Brunswick area.
In his 20s, he came to the attention of police and had been placed on a community corrections order for other offences a week before the fatal shooting.
Beale sentenced El Nasher to 29 years and three months in jail with a non-parole period of 22 years.
El Nasher left the courtroom smiling.
Outside court, Togiai’s sister Sharon Togiai thanked the police and prosecutors involved in the case, and the witnesses who came forward.
“We’re happy some kind of justice has been served. But nothing will bring back Ben,” she said.
“He was an amazing, warm, bubbly, super happy person.”
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