F
Farm Boy
Why am I surprised?
A former music teacher to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, now living in Melbourne, has been jailed for five years for robbing two elderly women.
Esam Moshi, 36, pleaded guilty in the County Court to two counts of aggravated burglary and two counts of recklessly causing injury.
In sentencing today, Judge Michael Bourke said Moshi's two victims were elderly women who had offered him water after he told them that his car had broken down outside his house.
The attacks occurred on two sequential days in July 2010 in Glenroy and Lalor. One victim was 87 and the other was 60.
In the first attack Moshi followed the victim into her kitchen where he threw her against the bench. He fled after the victim said that her son was returning home soon.
In the second attack, Moshi forced open the victim's security door when he offered her a business card.
The court heard he pushed her inside the house where he tried to steal her necklace from around her neck and fled.
Moshi, a father of one, was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, Judge Bourke said, after difficult dealings with former business partners with whom he had owned a reception centre in Reservoir.
Judge Bourke said Moshi had grown up in Baghdad and was a talented musician who taught music to Saddam Hussein and his family.
When that regime fell, Moshi and his family were forced to leave Iraq and moved to Australia.
Judge Bourke said the offending was particularly serious because of the age of the victims.
“These offences were serious examples of these crimes and particularly of aggravated burglary.
“Your victims were exceedingly vulnerable and have unsurprisingly suffered.
“There was a degree of planning and cunning involved.
“It must have been a traumatic and terrifying experience for them.”
Judge Bourke took into account Moshi's plea of guilty, that he was a man of prior good character and his psychological condition.
As the sentence was handed down, two of Moshi's supporters cried and one buried her face in her hands on her lap.
Judge Bourke jailed Moshi for five years and ordered that he serve a minimum of three years before being eligible for parole.
This reporter is on Twitter: @adrianlowe
© SMH
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A former music teacher to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, now living in Melbourne, has been jailed for five years for robbing two elderly women.
Esam Moshi, 36, pleaded guilty in the County Court to two counts of aggravated burglary and two counts of recklessly causing injury.
In sentencing today, Judge Michael Bourke said Moshi's two victims were elderly women who had offered him water after he told them that his car had broken down outside his house.
The attacks occurred on two sequential days in July 2010 in Glenroy and Lalor. One victim was 87 and the other was 60.
In the first attack Moshi followed the victim into her kitchen where he threw her against the bench. He fled after the victim said that her son was returning home soon.
In the second attack, Moshi forced open the victim's security door when he offered her a business card.
The court heard he pushed her inside the house where he tried to steal her necklace from around her neck and fled.
Moshi, a father of one, was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, Judge Bourke said, after difficult dealings with former business partners with whom he had owned a reception centre in Reservoir.
Judge Bourke said Moshi had grown up in Baghdad and was a talented musician who taught music to Saddam Hussein and his family.
When that regime fell, Moshi and his family were forced to leave Iraq and moved to Australia.
Judge Bourke said the offending was particularly serious because of the age of the victims.
“These offences were serious examples of these crimes and particularly of aggravated burglary.
“Your victims were exceedingly vulnerable and have unsurprisingly suffered.
“There was a degree of planning and cunning involved.
“It must have been a traumatic and terrifying experience for them.”
Judge Bourke took into account Moshi's plea of guilty, that he was a man of prior good character and his psychological condition.
As the sentence was handed down, two of Moshi's supporters cried and one buried her face in her hands on her lap.
Judge Bourke jailed Moshi for five years and ordered that he serve a minimum of three years before being eligible for parole.
This reporter is on Twitter: @adrianlowe
© SMH
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