WebMail
My BigPond
The getaway driver involved in the 2002 execution of underworld figure Victor Peirce will spend at least 14 years behind bars.
Peirce was shot dead as he sat in a car parked in Bay Street, Port Melbourne, on the night of May 1, 2002.
On Wednesday, the man who drove gunman Andrew Veniamin to and from the scene was jailed for a maximum of 20 years after a jury convicted him of murder.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Mark Weinberg said the man was a willing but subservient party to a carefully planned execution.
He said the man knew his job was to drive Veniamin to the scene so Peirce would be shot brazenly.
He had also played a key role in securing the getaway vehicle.
'This was a brazen and callous crime. The killing took place in a public street in the presence of bystanders,' Justice Weinberg said.
'By your conduct, you showed a callous disregard for the value of human life.'
The court heard Veniamin fired several shots at Peirce, two of which hit him and killed him almost instantly.
Peirce, a career criminal with a reputation for extreme violence, was at the time a small-time drug trafficker and user.
The court was told a third man, who was accused of setting up the murder, had lured Peirce to the scene so Peirce could buy drugs from him. That man was later acquitted.
A secret crown witness testified during the trial that Veniamin made it clear he wanted to find Peirce so he could kill him.
He said Veniamin had reasoned that if he did not get Peirce, Peirce would get him.
The secret witness said that after the killing, Veniamin, in the presence of the convicted getaway driver, or the getaway driver himself, admitted the pair had carried out the execution.
The jury also heard from Peirce's estranged wife Wendy Peirce, who testified that he feared Veniamin.
She testified that after his death, Veniamin's home address and car registration details were found among his things, confirming his fear of Veniamin and his desire to kill him.
In sentencing the getaway driver, Justice Weinberg described him as of low intelligence, immature, and easily led.
He said he had acted out of a distorted sense of loyalty to poor role models.
However, Justice Weinberg said he would impose a lower than normal minimum term because the man had some prospects of rehabilitation.
The 14-year minimum term takes into account more than two years he has already served in custody.
Peirce was charged but later acquitted over involvement in the infamous 1988 Walsh Street police murders, in which young constables Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre were killed in an unprovoked attack.
Peirce's accused gunman, Veniamin, died in March 2004 after he was shot dead at an inner Melbourne restaurant.
Mick Gatto was acquitted of his murder on the grounds of self-defence.
