Victor Brincat

Brincat was a notorious armed robber, gunman and fitness fanatic.

Police claim Brincat carried out 40 armed robberies in Victoria, SA and Western Australia over seven years.

His trademark was to run into a bank, pull a gun, demand large denomination notes and then run up to 500 metres to his getaway car.

In March 1990 Brincat escaped from Northfield Jail in South Australia, where he was serving a long sentence for armed robberies.

The following month he was arrested in Melbourne and questioned over four armed robberies.

As he was being driven to the city watchhouse the detective next to him fell asleep.

When the unmarked police car slowed in traffic he jumped from it and bolted.

He was arrested in Queensland in January 1991.

Brincat was arrested in June 1999 by the Special Operations Group shortly after attempting to rob the Lygon Street National Bank.

Police said Marshall, a drug dealer, hotdog salesman and former kickboxer, was standing outside the house in Joy Street when he was fired upon about 6.30pm.

Marshall was shot up to five times in the head with a handgun in front of his five-year-old son and girlfriend after arriving home.

Brincat and Hentschell were arrested less than six hours after Marshall was killed.

The pair were in a Toyota van near the Elsternwick hotel at the corner of Glenhuntly Road and the Nepean Highway.

Brincat and Hentschell were remanded in custody to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court.

When forensic experts took a swab from his gums in prison after the Marshall murder they were horrified to find a "brown substance" in his mouth.

The substance, designed to compromise the test, was not identified.

But it was definitely not breath freshener.

The alleged threats were made in a taped phone conversation to Victor Brincat in Barwon Prison.

Carl was bailed two weeks later.

The arrest was dramatically captured on film by The Age photographer Angela Wylie.

The Australian: It was the height of Melbourne's gangland war and accused underworld murderer Carl Williams was out drinking with a mate at Crown casino.

Late in the evening, he put in a call to his wife, Roberta, and aside from arguing about what time he would be coming home, he threatened to kill a Purana Taskforce detective.

Williams: "If a cocksucker breaks in there or (Detective-Sergeant Stuart) Bateson comes lookin' for me, you know what to do, don't ya?" Williams said to his wife.

"Grab the gun from under the mattress and shoot them in the head."

A sleepy Roberta appeared to see the funny side. "You're a fuckin' idiot," she replied with a laugh."

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard that nine hours later, on the morning of November 15, 2003, Williams took a call at home from his friend Victor Brincat, who was in jail.

Brincat complained of being "punished" by prison officers, prompting Williams to threaten to "chop up" Sergeant Bateson's girlfriend.

"If he (Bateson) wants to fuck with my mate, I'll fuck his missus," Williams told Brincat.

"Whatever you need done, just tell me what to do. If you want Bateson's missus, I'll just chop her up."

Both phone conversations were intercepted by police.

In a statement to police, Sergeant Bateson said he was immediately notified by his colleagues about the content of Williams's phone calls, and that he in turn informed his girlfriend of the threat.

"She immediately broke into tears," Sergeant Bateson said.

"I have taken these threats extremely seriously. I have taken precautions in relation to our security both at home and at work."

"The impact of these threats on my personal life has been substantial."

"I have taken these threats extremely seriously". 

His girlfriend told police she was "extremely scared and shocked" by the threats.

Sergeant Bateson and his girlfriend have since split up.

16 months after the incident, Williams faced a one-day committal hearing, charged with two counts of threatening to kill.

His lawyer Nick Papas told the court that Williams had been joking and his comments were "entirely stupid" and "off the cuff", not serious threats to kill."

He said that Williams's threat to "chop up" Sergeant Bateson's girlfriend did not necessarily mean he intended to kill her.

At an earlier court hearing, Williams had apologised for his comments to Sergeant Bateson and his family, Mr Papas told the court.

But the police officer said that he had been unaware of the apology.

Mr Papas said the fact Williams knew his conversations were being taped was evidence the threats were not serious.

However, prosecutor Andrew Tinney told the court Williams made the comments knowing police were intercepting his phone calls and that the threats would inevitably be relayed to Sergeant Bateson, who at the time was investigating Williams's links to several underworld murders.

"He knew who his audience was," Mr Tinney said.

Magistrate Paresa Spanos dismissed the charge over the threat to kill Sergeant Bateson, finding there was no evidence to support the charge based on "the simple meaning of the word 'threat"'.

However, she committed Williams to stand trial over the second charge of threatening to kill Sergeant Bateson's partner, saying a reasonable jury could convict the defendant, given the evidence."

When Williams was asked how he pleaded to the charge, he said confidently: "I am not guilty. There's one win and there will be plenty more to come."

On May 12, 2004 a magistrate ruled that Brincat would be forced to provide police with a DNA sample of his blood.

Police sought to take a sample from Brincat so that his DNA could be compared with genetic material linked to the murder of Michael Marshall.

Magistrate Duncan Reynolds said he was satisfied that there was enough evidence to link Brincat to Marshall's murder and granted the application.

Melbourne Magistrates Court was told earlier that police tried to take a DNA sample from Brincat at Barwon Prison earlier in the month.

The court was told that an almost silent Brincat motioned for police to take a cheek swab from him after he refused to give a blood sample.

Sergeant Lauren Callaway said she asked Brincat to put the swab in his mouth and scrape the inside of his cheek, when he instead put the swab under his tongue.

Sergeant Callaway said that when Brincat removed the swab it was "saturated in an unknown brown substance".

She then asked Brincat to take the swab again but he did not comply.

The court was also told that police recorded the movements and conversations of Brincat and Hentschel in the nine days before Marshall's death.

On the way to Marshall's house the pair allegedly discussed what type of firearm to use, where Brincat would be let out of the car and picked up, and the need for Brincat to shower and change his clothes.

The court was told that witnesses saw a man fitting Brincat's description fleeing the scene of the shooting.

Brincat remained expressionless throughout the 15-minute hearing except to smile at crime figure and alleged amphetamine dealer Carl Williams, who sat in the public gallery with his father, George.

Brincat's barrister, Sean Grant, said the application should be denied because an earlier application for DNA to connect Brincat with the killings of Marshall, gangster Jason Moran and his associate Pasquale Barbaro was refused in March.

In August 2004, Carl Williams and associates Victor Brincat and Alfonso Traglia were charged with the murder of Jason Moran.

They were remanded to face court again the following year.

On March 1, 2005 a court was told that Carl Williams ordered that criminal Jason Moran be murdered on the anniversary of the killing of his half-brother Mark Moran.

Williams allegedly wanted Jason Moran to be shot on June 14, 2003. Mark Moran had been gunned down outside his Aberfeldie home on June 15, 2000.

It was alleged in court that Williams ordered the hit in retaliation for being shot in the stomach by one of the Moran brothers in 1999.

However, it was alleged the plan failed after Williams' purported accomplice, Alfonso Traglia (arrested on August 18, 2004), failed to identify Jason Moran at a junior football clinic on the intended day of the murder.

A week later, on June 21, 2003, Williams' co-accused Victor Brincat allegedly shot Moran and Pasquale Barbaro as the pair sat in a van with 10 children after attending an Auskick football clinic at the Cross Keys Reserve on Pascoe Vale Road, Essendon North.

Williams, Brincat and Traglia appeared in a committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with the men's murder.

The two gangland murder hearings were being held simultaneously because the case against the three accused relied on the evidence of supergrass Mr X.

In January Mr X was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years' jail for his involvement in Marshall's murder.

The court also heard that Mr X had provided Purana taskforce detectives, investigating underworld murders, with a statement connected to the murder of Mark Moran.

Mr X told police he had driven Williams to and from an area close to Mark Moran's home on the night of the shooting.

During the hearing, the three accused sat in a secure dock behind security glass and flanked by five armed guards.

In his opening, prosecutor Geoff Horgan, SC, said Williams ordered the murders of Jason Moran and Marshall but Barbaro was an unfortunate victim, in "the wrong place at the wrong time".

Mr Horgan said Brincat drove to a nearby street and was picked up by Mr X, who then dropped him off near the park filled with children.

He said Brincat, carrying a sawn-off shotgun and hand gun, walked up to the van and shot the two men dead.

Both were shot in the head, and Moran also in the upper back.

A security camera at the Cross Keys Hotel, next to the park, recorded the shooting.

Brincat then fled to a Ford sedan, registered to Williams' father, George.

The court heard the car was sold two days later.

Mr Horgan said Mr X would give evidence that he carried out surveillance on the home of Michael Marshall on at least 30 occasions before the murder.

He said Williams ordered the murder of Marshall, who was involved in the illegal drugs trade, but said the motivation for the killing remains unclear.

"(Mr X) would say that the murder was organised by Carl Williams and he engaged Victor Brincat," Mr Horgan said.

At the time of the killing, Brincat was the partner of Michelle Mircieca, Williams' sister-in-law.

Mr Horgan said the car carrying Mr X and Brincat was under police surveillance in the period before the murder.

"Marshall pulled into Joy Street, South Yarra, with his five-year-old son beside him in the front," Mr Horgan said. "Brincat ran forward and at almost contact range, if not contact range, fired four to five shots, leaving him (Marshall) dying on the roadway."

He said Brincat ran from the scene before he was picked up by Mr X and the pair drove to a flat in Melbourne's south. They were to meet Williams, but were arrested in Elsternwick.