HOW THIS BOY BECAME A TERRORIST
Brighton attack latest
THE crazed gunman shot dead by police during a murderous terror act was regarded as a “Man Monis’’ type during his time in jail.
Yacqub Khayre, a repeat offender in and out of jail since his teen years, was regarded by prison authorities as a troublesome “goose”.
A refugee in 1991, he had been put in youth detention as a teen and was an inmate on remand accused of being a terrorist by 2009.
He would be acquitted in 2010 of terrorism charges, but two years later was back inside, this time at Port Phillip Prison. It was there he gained the reputation while housed in the Fishburn unit for his behaviour.
Convicted over a brutal Dallas aggravated burglary in 2012, Khayre showed no remorse for his crimes, some that would leave mental scars on his victims.
News Corp has been told the 29-year-old aligned himself with a Middle-Eastern crime family but was not regarded as fearsome.
A corrections source said Khayre shared similarities with Lindt cafe siege killer Man Haron Monis.
He said both tried to give the appearance of religious devotion but, at heart, were just violent criminals.
“He’s like Monis. That’s his profile,” the source said.
“He was an absolute goose. He was a Monis-type idiot.”
Khayre was regarded by staff and other prisoners as a whinger who constantly complained about everything from how the jail was run to the food he was served.
His hostile demeanour would continue at other Victorian prisons.
On February 7, 2014, while in Loddon Prison, he set fire to it and, following his conviction, was given a one-month concurrent jail term and a $217.80 fine.
A year later, on February 21, he did it again, this time at Barwon Prison.
A magistrate gave him two months’ jail and a $1511 fine.
But Khayre would still get parole in December, 2016, despite judges previously stating it was unlikely he could be rehabilitated.
“He was a nuisance, highmaintenance,” the source said.
“He officer-shopped until he got what he wanted.”
His defiance extended to, on occasions, refusing to appear for morning muster counts.
The source said that, at one stage, Khayre made an enemy of one of the prison system’s longest serving and most dangerous figures.
“He knew how to rub people up the wrong way. He was a no one, honestly.”
Some in the Somali community regarded Khayre as a drug addict and an alcoholic.
Khayre was always considered more bad than radical Islamist until crime agencies suspected his involvement in a terror plot to kill up to 500 military personnel and civilians at Holsworthy army base.
The case against him involved evidence he travelled to Somalia to train at a camp where he may have received weapons training, and seeking a fatwa to carry out the terror plot.
Khayre, and four other coaccused, was facing a maximum life term for preparing a terrorist attack.
When arrested for the Holsworthy Army Barracks plot, Khayre was visited by Islamic prison chaplains. He was told about the responsibilities every prisoner had and given advice on how to be a Muslim in Australian society.
But he, and one other co-accused, walked free from court in mid 2010. He had spent 15 months on remand.
Khayre almost immediately began abusing drugs following his acquittal. “This is just someone who has gone off their head,’’ said a woman closely associated with those convicted over the Holsworthy plot. “He was a lost soul.
In the 24 hours before Khayre began his siege, he had appeared calm and relaxed as he sat down for evening prayers in a Broadmeadows mosque.
“I saw him on Sunday night and he didn’t seem at all strange or like something was going on,” a long-time friend said.
“I was so shocked when I saw what happened because it didn’t make any sense. The last message I got from him was wishing me a happy Ramadan and he seemed quite friendly when I spoke to him on Sunday. “
He said Khayre had been working as a bricklayer in recent months and showed no outward signs of radicalisation.
One of five brothers and sisters, Khayre came to Australia as a small boy with his grandparents from war-torn Moga- dishu via a Kenyan refugee camp. Their parents followed but their father, a former Somali army general, was often absent.
His community described him as one of the “Lost Ones”, a translation of a Somali term given to young men who have difficulty adjusting to life in Australia.
Khayre later told police that converting to Islam saved his life.
Carrying his English-language Koran, he began praying at Preston Mosque before moving to the controversial 8 Blacks prayer centre in an old snooker hall in North Melbourne where he met his Holsworthy co-accused.
Police were said to be “gutted” when Khayre was found not guilty by the Victorian Supreme Court jury of being part of a homegrown jihadi group.
Khayre had assured relatives he had turned a new leaf.