An associate of the Alameddine crime family has been sentenced to a maximum five-year term over what a judge described as a “professional attack on a journalist”.
Tufi Junior Tauese-Auelia, 39, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the targeted firebombing in November 2022 of the Bondi rental home of political commentator and YouTube satirist Jordan Shanks, known online as FriendlyJordies.
Jordan Shanks, who publishes FriendlyJordies, had his Bondi house firebombed in November 2022.Credit: OnScene Bondi, Sally Rawsthorne
Tauese-Auelia also pleaded guilty to a vicious attack in July 2022. On that occasion, a man was severely beaten by Tauese-Auelia and others armed with baseball bats. The victim suffered a fractured eye socket, lacerations and a broken elbow.
“I would just like to apologise from the bottom of my heart,” Tauese-Auelia told the court. “I’m over this life. Your Honour, I’ve wasted so many years in jail”.
Describing prison as a “jungle,” Tauese-Auelia, who came with his parents from Samoa as a child, told District Court Judge Michael McHugh that he would “rather die than come back to jail”.
“Nothing, nothing, nothing good comes from this place,” said Tauese-Auelia, who was giving evidence by an audio-visual link from Nowra jail.
His barrister, Alex Cassels, told the court that his client was “a little boy in a very large body” who suffered from a serious condition known as intermittent explosive disorder.
However, the judge noted Tauese-Auelia had a long history of violent offending and is already serving a three-year term for an assault.
McHugh said that Tauese-Auelia was being used as “muscle” for third parties who were not named. He noted that there had been a degree of planning before the firebombing of Shanks’ house.
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