Keith George Faure was convicted of two murders committed in Melbourne in the spring of 2004. Lewis Moran, 58, died in Brunswick on March 31, 2004. Lewis Caine, who also went by the name Sean Vincent, died on May 8, 2004. In November 2005 a Supreme Court of Victoria jury found Faure and his co-accused Evangelos Goussis guilty of Caine's murder. Faure then pleaded guilty to Moran's murder under an agreement with police to give evidence against Goussis. On May 3, 2006, he was sentenced to 24 years' jail for Caine's murder and to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 19 years, for Moran's.
Both deaths belong to the conflict between rival criminal groups in Melbourne, in which more than 30 people were killed between 1998 and 2010. Faure's plea accepted that he had carried out the Moran murder for payment, and it supplied evidence for the prosecution of the second man involved.
Faure was born about 1951. He was 52 in May 2004 and 54 at sentencing in 2006. He came from Geelong, in western Victoria.
The Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants counted about 17 murders between 1998 and mid-2003 and traced the escalation of the violence to a dispute over money in late 1999. Two members of the Moran family were killed in 2000 and 2003. Victoria Police set up the Purana Taskforce in May 2003 with the aim of dismantling the criminal groups responsible for the murders.
Lewis Moran was 58. On the evening of Wednesday, March 31, 2004, he died in Brunswick, in Melbourne's north. A 62-year-old man who was with him was seriously injured and survived.
The prosecution at Goussis's Supreme Court trial in April 2008 said the murder was a contract worth $150,000, arising from a long-running feud. A witness whose name was suppressed gave evidence against Goussis at that trial.
Lewis Caine, also known as Sean Vincent, died on May 8, 2004, about six weeks after Moran. The case against Faure and Goussis for his murder reached trial before the case over Moran.
By May 20, 2004, Purana detectives had charged Faure, then 52, and Goussis, 36, with murder in connection with Caine's death. The Assistant Commissioner for Crime, Simon Overland, told reporters the arrests were "significant but obviously we've got a long way to go."
Police interviewed Faure about the Moran murder in October 2004. In December 2004 the Melbourne Magistrates Court heard that he had named Goussis as also involved, and that Goussis had been identified as a "reasonable suspect." On March 3, 2005, Faure, then 53, was committed to stand trial for Caine's murder. He pleaded not guilty and told the magistrate he was innocent, and he was remanded to appear in the Supreme Court in May.
On May 13, 2005, Faure, Goussis and a third man appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with the murder of Lewis Moran. Overland said the arrests were among the most important of the underworld war and that the Purana Taskforce would now be scaled down.
Faure and Goussis stood trial together before a jury in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2005. The jury took seven days to reach its verdict. On November 3, 2005, it found both men guilty of the murder of Lewis Caine. Faure's counsel, James Montgomery, said the matter was not finished and that an appeal would be launched. Goussis's lawyer said his client was devastated and would consider his options.
At a plea hearing on January 20, 2006, Goussis made submissions on sentence. Faure was expected but did not appear, and the court heard that he had chosen not to make submissions. The prosecution said there had been a "massive falling out" between the two men. Goussis was later sentenced to 20 years' jail with a minimum of 15 years for Caine's murder.
Before his sentencing Faure reached an agreement with police. He pleaded guilty to the murder of Lewis Moran and undertook to give evidence against Goussis. On May 3, 2006, the Supreme Court of Victoria sentenced him to 24 years' jail for the murder of Lewis Caine and to life imprisonment for the murder of Lewis Moran, with a minimum of 19 years to serve under the agreement. The court was told that he had accepted money to carry out the Moran murder from two men, one of whom cannot be named for legal reasons.
Goussis was committed to stand trial for Moran's murder in March 2007 and pleaded not guilty. His Supreme Court trial ran in April and May 2008. His lawyers said he was elsewhere at the time of the murder. On May 29, 2008, the jury found him guilty of the murder of Lewis Moran and not guilty of the attempted murder of the injured man.
Moran's widow said after the verdict: "I can't say I am happy my husband is dead, but at least these murderers have got what they deserved." Goussis was sentenced in February 2009 to life imprisonment. On October 28, 2011, Justices Kenneth Hayne and Susan Kiefel of the High Court of Australia refused him leave to appeal.
At the time of these sentences, section 5(2)(AB) of the Victorian Sentencing Act 1991 allowed a court to impose a lesser sentence on an offender who had undertaken to cooperate with the authorities. A Supreme Court judge applied it in 2006 to an offender convicted of another murder from the same conflict, declaring the sentence less severe than it would otherwise have been. Faure's life sentence with a 19-year minimum was imposed under an agreement of the same kind.
Faure's counsel announced an appeal against the Caine verdict in November 2005. Faure had pleaded not guilty to that murder and had told the magistrate he was innocent. His later plea of guilty to the Moran murder did not extend to the Caine verdict, which rested on the jury's finding.
1998 to 2010: more than 30 people are killed in Melbourne's underworld conflict.
May 2003: Victoria Police sets up the Purana Taskforce.
March 31, 2004: Lewis Moran, 58, dies in Brunswick; a second man is seriously injured.
May 8, 2004: Lewis Caine dies in Melbourne.
May 20, 2004: Faure, 52, and Goussis, 36, are charged by Purana detectives.
October 2004: Police interview Faure about the Moran murder.
March 3, 2005: Faure is committed to stand trial for Caine's murder.
May 13, 2005: Faure, Goussis and a third man are charged with Moran's murder.
November 3, 2005: A Supreme Court jury finds Faure and Goussis guilty of Caine's murder.
May 3, 2006: Faure is sentenced to 24 years for Caine and to life with a 19-year minimum for Moran.
May 29, 2008: Goussis is found guilty of Moran's murder.
February 2009: Goussis is sentenced to life imprisonment.
October 28, 2011: The High Court refuses Goussis leave to appeal.