Précis

He shocked the world by tweeting pictures of himself and his child holding the severed heads of people executed by Islamic State (IS). Khaled Sharrouf casts himself as a religious warrior fighting to create a caliphate in the Middle East.

But a close look at his life tells a more complex story of a young man with a history of drug taking, mental illness and violence. Overall one question recurs: is he a religious zealot or a criminal thug who used his muscle in the building industry?

"Khaled Sharrouf is not bad, he's mad. There's no less than five psychiatrists that I know who have diagnosed him with very significant mental health issues." - Sharrouf's former lawyer

Reporter Marian Wilkinson investigates the extraordinary life of Khaled Sharrouf, from petty criminal and underworld heavy to barbaric terrorist fighter.

"... He certainly appears to have become involved with some people who were involved in some pretty serious criminal activity and a couple of people in fact who were murdered, ultimately." - Police Officer

Sharrouf's notoriety in Australia began when he was arrested by police, charged and found guilty of a terrorism offence in 2005. Since then, he has recast himself as an enforcer for hire.

These days, former associates don't like to talk about their relationship with Sharrouf, but Four Corners has found evidence from various sources about the way he worked with figures in the building industry and how he came to the attention of law enforcement agents after an alleged extortion threat against one of Australia's most prominent construction companies.

It's clear that while Khaled Sharrouf may have had some powerful allies, he also made some dangerous enemies.

"I believe that Khaled Sharrouf was afraid for his life and that's what made him decide to leave Australia and use his brother's passport to escape, because he was concerned that he will be the next one to be shot." - Muslim Community Leader

One other question remains. How did someone with a criminal conviction, who was on a watch list and under investigation, get out of the country using his brother's passport?

Archival. ISIL’s assault on Iran from June 2014. Black flags on trucks entering Mosul,

Music

00:14

Sounds of protesters

00:20

MARIAN WILKINSON, REPORTER: When Islamic State fighters swept into Northern Iraq in June, their savagery stunned the world.

00:27

Music/Gunfire

00:33

MARIAN WILKINSON:  Outside the city of Tikrit, Islamic State's propaganda machine rejoiced in their mass executions of Iraqi soldiers, uploading graphic videos of the slaughter.

00:46

Archival. Men in ditch being executed

00:58

TOM MALINOWSKI, US ASST SEC OF STATE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: They use social media,

01:02

Malinowski. Super:
Tom Malinowski
US Asst. Sec. of State for Human Rights

but whatever the media, I think what's particularly horrific is the message. And the message is, 'There are no limits'. We don't care what you think. We are proud of what we're doing, we will continue to do it until you stop us.

01:03

Archival. Men being lined up for execution. Focus on Sharrouf’s sneakers

Music

01:17

MARIAN WILKINSON: Among the hardcore Islamic State killers rounding up police and military in Northern Iraq one soon stood out - identified by his lime green sneakers, Abu Zarqawi al-Australi. He's seen here examining his victim before posting his triumph on Twitter.

01:24

Still. Sharrouf posing with gun

This Jihadist was born and bred in Sydney's western suburbs. His real name is Khaled Sharrouf.

01:46

Still. Sharrouf holding up head

His vicious brutality from Syria to Iraq has made him the global face of Islamic State's foreign fighters.

PETER MORONEY, FMR COUNTER-TERRORISM COMMAND, NSW POLICE: Khaled Sharrouf is the end product of what happened.

01:56

Moroney. Super:
Peter Moroney
Fmr Counter Terrorism Command, NSW Police

He is the end result, and I think where a lot of us have got to try to really focus on, is how did he get made that way? How did he end up that way? It occurred here within Australia. It didn't occur overseas.

02:09

Archival. Police at Boskovski murder scene

Music

02:22

MARIAN WILKINSON: Just one year earlier, Khaled Sharrouf was embroiled in another brutal murder. Not in the Middle East but in Western Sydney. Sharrouf's business associate was gunned down at the door of his Earlwood home. This murder was not triggered by religion, but by an apparent blow up over a debt collection in Sydney's fraught construction industry where Khaled Sharrouf acted as a standover man.

02:26

Still. Sharrouf

NICK KALDAS, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, NSW POLICE: He certainly appears to have become involved with some people who were involved in some pretty serious criminal activity, and a couple of people in fact who were murdered ultimately.

02:54

Kaldas. Super:
Nick Kaldas
Deputy Commissioner, NSW Police

The reality is that if he is involved in that milieu, if he's involved in that level of violence, if he's involved with some of these people, I think it casts a great deal of doubt about his serious religious beliefs.

03:05

Rifi. Super:
Dr Jamal Rifi
Islamic community leader

JAMAL RIFI, DR, ISLAMIC COMMUNITY LEADER: I believe that Khaled Sharrouf was afraid for his life and that's what made him to decide to leave Australia and use his brother's passport to escape, because he was concerned that he will be the next one to be shot.

03:18

Archival. ISIS footage

03:34

MARIAN WILKINSON: Islamic State's western recruits, like Khaled Sharrouf, are increasingly found by police and intelligence agencies to have violent criminal records at home. Drawn to Iraq and Syria by the hard core brutality of IS they are known as "gangster" jihadists even by young Muslims they try to recruit.

03:37

Yehya. Super:
Yehya El-Kholed
Free Syria activist

YEHYA EL KHOLED, FREE SYRIA ACTIVIST: I think these people have a fetish for blood. I think they love seeing blood. I think their gangster mentality that they took from the streets, from their old lives of gangs and violence and whatever - they've taken it into Syria, they think this is a turf war.

04:02

Archival. Pendennis arrests

Music

04:13

MARIAN WILKINSON: Nine-years-ago, police arrested Khaled Sharrouf in what was then the biggest counter-terrorism raids in Australia's history - Operation Pendennis.

NICK KALDAS: I think Pendennis by any measure was a watershed moment

04:17

Kaldas

in Australian law enforcement and the intelligence community. Here were people who were seriously intent on causing significant harm to the Australian community and Sharrouf was certainly part of that effort.

04:32

Archival. Sharrouf arrest/ In to police station

MARIAN WILKINSON: Tonight we reveal how Khaled Sharrouf straddled the paths of radical Islam and street crime in Australia over two troubled decades.

04:43

When he was first charged with terrorism offences in 2005, he was just 24-years-old. By then he already had a history of drug abuse, mental illness and petty criminality.

04:57

JAMAL RIFI: I didn't know Khaled on a personal level, but I knew his father.

05:15

Dr Rifi with patient

MARIAN WILKINSON: Dr Jamal Rifi grew up on the same street as Sharrouf's father in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli.

JAMAL RIFI: Mohamed Sharrouf was an army officer, he was a tough man.

05:20

MARIAN WILKINSON: He recalls the Sharrouf family in Australia being fractured by divorce and family violence.

JAMAL RIFI: Khaled Sharrouf had difficulty in his upbringing

05:38

Rifi

and problems at school and I don't think he was the brightest of the bright and he used drugs during his school years and unfortunately that led him to have conflict with authority.

05:50

Photo. Sharrouf

ANTHONY WHEALY, FMR NSW SUPREME COURT JUDGE: Well, we know that he became a habitual user of LSD, ecstasy and amphetamines from quite an early age,

06:07

Whealy. Super:
Hon Anthony Whealy
Fmr NSW Supreme Court Judge

so he was clearly a troubled boy and sought solace in the use of those type of drugs. Very quickly, he began to exhibit signs of mental illness. Subsequently he was found to have full blown schizophrenia and that was the mental state he had at the time of his arrest in 2005.

06:18

Moroney. Super:
Peter Moroney
Fmr Counter Terrorism Command, NSW Police

PETER MORONEY: He also knew how to play the system. He knew that he could rely on it and he could he knew that he'd just have to say he'd been off his meds and he knew that he'd have the leniency of the court and, in simple terms, he knew how to play that system and he did play it to varying degrees.

06:38

Moroney driving

MARIAN WILKINSON: Former New South Wales detective, Peter Moroney spent two years tracking Khaled Sharrouf and the key targets in Operation Pendennis. He believes Sharrouf's violent hair trigger was a big asset to the plotters.

PETER MORONEY: If you wanted to try to label him or tag him into some description,

06:54

Moroney

you would put him in the area of the 'muscle', in the sense that he was quick to fly off the handle if he had to, or if there was a need to. But he definitely... and I suppose that's what made him dangerous in the end.

07:18

Night. Mosque exterior

MARIAN WILKINSON: Sharrouf's father worshipped at the Western Sydney's Lakemba Mosque.

07:32

Mosque interior

He served as a security guard for the Sheik, who had held Sharrouf as a baby.

07:40

Archival. Dawn prayers

But Khaled Sharrouf came of age the year of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Like many young Muslim men angered by the western invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, Sharrouf was drawn to far more radical Islamic teachers.

07:48

Haldon Street prayer room

He found them in Lakemba's Haldon Street, at a non-descript prayer room already under surveillance by counter-terrorism police.

08:08

PETER MORONEY: It's clear that he was groomed or he was - whatever word you want to use -

08:18

Moroney

he was groomed, he was trained, he was indoctrinated.

08:22

Judge Whealy reading in chamber

MARIAN WILKINSON: Former Supreme Court Judge, Anthony Whealy analysed Sharrouf's indoctrination in detail when he presided over the Pendennis trials.

ANTHONY WHEALY: He encountered a, very hard-line cleric in Melbourne called Benbrika whose message for jihad was very clear:

08:27

Whealy

'Do maximum damage to people in Australia', in order to persuade Australian authorities to stop their activities in Muslim lands, and he became, I think, completely devoted to that cause.

08:50

Archival. Benbrika. Excerpt from 7:30 Report story

ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA, PREACHER: This is my place which I study...

MARIAN WILKINSON: Melbourne preacher, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, was a visitor to the Haldon Street prayer room in Sydney.

09:05

ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA: Osama bin Laden - he's a great man.

09:15

(to reporter) They dig here.

MARIAN WILKINSON: A self-styled sheik from Algeria, Benbrika, had no formal religious training.

ANTHONY WHEALY: The sheik's influence was clearly very significant.

09:19

Whealy

The sheik would come to Sydney and he would stay at Sharrouf's home. Sharrouf would collect him from the airport, so he was clearly a sort of minder for the sheik so it was quite a close relationship.

09:31

Haldon Street prayer room

Music

09:44

MARIAN WILKINSON: Evidence gathered by police shows Sharrouf's radicalisation at the prayer room followed a three-phase process still familiar today.

09:46

Stills. Children’s deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq

Sharrouf was deluged with this graphic material on civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of western forces.

09:56

Moroney

PETER MORONEY: When you overlay it now to the person he's become, that that material... there was no doubt - in my mind at least anyway - it served as that first step, that first grooming process to see how they'd react and respond as they were shown these types of videos at their prayer meetings.

10:07

Stills.

10:24

MARIAN WILKINSON: Then came the next phase: glorious stories of the Mujahadeen fight back. And finally the third: indoctrination in violent revenge.

10:28

Whealy. Super:
Hon Anthony Whealy
Fmr NSW Supreme Court Judge

ANTHONY WHEALY: The third level, which was much more extreme was the actual slaughter and beheading of hostages kept by the Mujahadeen, and these were the most horrific images. I would simply say that you had to be depraved to enjoy watching them, that's how bad they were. To see someone else being murdered, and to hear them crying out as they were murdered, was a devastating thing to have to watch. But these people were watching them to get pleasure out of it.

10:43

Big W exterior

Music

11:16

MARIAN WILKINSON: Bizarrely, it was a shop lifting incident at a local Big W that brought Sharrouf undone in the 2005 Pendennis investigation. Security guards notified police after they discovered

11:19

Still. Batteries and clocks

140 batteries and six clocks hidden in a carton Sharrouf took from the store.

11:34

Moroney walking. Night

Counter-terrorism police identified the cache as a possible detonating device for an explosion. PETER MORONEY: These guys their view was jihad, was to kill. That was that simple. It was to kill in God's name or in Allah's name - that was it. And it was clear from their discussions,

11:42

Moroney

it was clear from the material that we had gathered, that they had now been -- my words -- groomed - indoctrinated - now to a degree that their next step was to now carry out an act. And that's an act here, that's an act within Australia, that's not overseas.

12:03

Suspect into police cells/Sharrouf in cell

MARIAN WILKINSON: After his arrest Sharrouf was held with eight other men from western Sydney. But within days, Sharrouf's lawyers were arguing he was too mentally ill to face court.

ADAM HOUDA, LAWYER: They were aided by the medical file that I had gathered over the years on Khaled Sharrouf.

12:18

Houda outside court

MARIAN WILKINSON: Adam Houda had been Sharrouf's criminal lawyer before the Pendennis arrest.

12:39

ADAM HOUDA: These matters are scandalous political prosecutions which shame this nation. These young men are presumed innocent...

12:47

MARIAN WILKINSON: He acted for the Pendennis' accused in Sydney, but not Sharrouf whose case was soon awash with psychiatric experts.

12:54

ADAM HOUDA: ... thank you.

COURT REPORTER: Which politicians were grandstanding Mr Houda?

13:01

Houda. Super:
Adam Houda
Lawyer

ADAM HOUDA: Khaled Sharrouf is not bad, he's mad. There's no less than five psychiatrists that I know who have diagnosed him with very significant mental health issues and that's why I find it very problematic that all this hysteria and counter-terrorism, and the ISIS debates are based on the actions of a mad man.

13:07

Lithgow jail

MARIAN WILKINSON: Sharrouf ultimately spent less than four years in jail after agreeing to treatment for his mental illness. He pleaded guilty to a single charge of preparing for a terrorist act.

13:29

Parramatta court interior. Whealy presiding

At Sharrouf's sentencing his Australian born wife, Tara Nettleton, gave a statement to the court that Sharrouf wanted to turn away from radical Islam.

13:45

ANTHONY WHEALY: She said that she'd spoken to Sharrouf at length, and that he'd expressed

14:00

Whealy

a great deal of regret that he hadn't looked after his children properly and he wanted the opportunity if allowed out of prison at some stage in the future to make up to those children for what he had not given them which strikes me as a very ironic statement.

14:05

Still. Sharrouf with sons holding guns

MARIAN WILKINSON: Four years after his release from jail, Khaled Sharrouf fled Australia. His wife and children soon joined him in Islamic State's stronghold in Syria.

14:21

Sharrouf’s son holding severed head

In a display of unrepentant brutality, Sharrouf got his young son to pose with the severed head of a Syrian enemy. The photograph shocked the civilised world.

14:37

Rifi. Super:
Dr Jamal Rifi
Islamic community leader

JAMAL RIFI: It's only a mentally deranged person will do such act, and I was trying to say it had nothing to do with Islam because this guy didn't go to Syria to defend the Ummah, or the Muslims, or the oppressed people in Syria. He was scared of his life and that's why he fled this country.

14:53

Sharrouf with group emerging from court

MARIAN WILKINSON: Four Corners has now pieced together how Khaled Sharrouf spent his four years after leaving prison.

15:13

Still. Sharrouf with group

He rebuilt his ties with local Islamic extremists; he earned a reputation as a menacing standover man and he emerged as a full blown gangster jihadist despite being on the watch list of every counter-intelligence agency in Australia.

15:22

Sharrouf with group emerging from court

REPORTER: Are you planning any more protests this weekend?

ANTHONY WHEALY: You would think in the case of somebody like Sharrouf, knowing now a bit about what happened to him in those intervening years,

15:41

Whealy. Super:
Hon Anthony Whealy
Fmr NSW Supreme Court Judge

that had he been kept under observation it would have immediately alerted to the authorities that he was moving in very bad circles indeed.

15:50

Boxing match footage

BOXING COMMENTATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, wearing the red trunks with the white piping, please welcome Mohamed 'Sugar' Elomar!

MARIAN WILKINSON: Featherweight boxer Mohamed Elomar was one of Sharrouf's first connections after his release from jail. The boxer introduced Sharrouf to his gym.

BOXING COMMENTATOR 2: ...And we're underway to the

15:59

controversial re-match...

ADAM HOUDA: I used to see him attending the boxing gym on a regular basis. I go to the boxing gym - the same gym as Mohamed Elomar.

16:24

Houda

As you know Mohamed Elomar's an accomplished boxer. I think he was ah a former two-time Australian super featherweight champion. And I noticed that Khaled Sharrouf always attended to support Mohamed Elomar and his career. He would support... he'd go to his fights, watch his fights and support him.

16:33

Police at Parramatta court

MARIAN WILKINSON: But Sharrouf and Elomar had a more potent tie. Elomar's uncle had been the leader of the Pendennis terrorist plot in Sydney.

16:50

Still. Mohamed Elomar uncle

A former engineer, also known as Mohamed, he was jailed for 21 years for his role in the conspiracy.

17:04

Elomar boxer outside court

At court on the day of his uncle's sentencing, Elomar was in denial.

17:14

MOHAMED ELOMAR, FEATHERWEIGHT BOXER: My uncle, the best person like um... he used to go with me to me boxing fights, 'cause I was a boxer and he used to train me.

17:22

MARIAN WILKINSON: Elomar would forge a deep bond with Sharrouf that would bring both of them to Syria.

ADAM HOUDA: I noticed that he got really fit.

17:29

Houda. Super:
Adam Houda
Lawyer

If you were interviewing Khaled Sharrouf right now, and you would ask him what motivated him to go to Syria and Iraq, he would tell you that, 'I'm just sick and tired of seeing brutal dictatorships killing women and children and it's incumbent upon every Muslim to go to the defence of those that are being killed and oppressed'. That's.... the answers that he will give you.

17:37

Archival. Syrian civil war. Bombing

MARIAN WILKINSON: Syria's bloody civil war was the catalyst for Sharrouf to re-launch his credentials as a radical Jihadist. By 2012 almost 60,000 people had died in the uprising against Syria's repressive Assad regime.

18:00

Protest in Australia

(Sound of protestors chanting)

18:23

MARIAN WILKINSON:  Australia's Muslim community was swept up in the conflict and fractured along bitter sectarian lines.

PROTESTORS: Free, free Syria!

18:26

JAMAL RIFI: The resentment that was within our community, to the brutality of the Assad regime was very high at that time.

18:35

Rifi. Super:
Dr Jamal Rifi
Islamic community leader

That created a lot of tension because it fragmented the community along religious line, but also criminal element was in our community has used it to their own advantage by targeting the Shi'ite community and the Alawite's community businesses, and asking for ransom or demanding their closure or even burning their shops.

18:44

Daoud walks in suburban Sydney past shops

MARIAN WILKINSON: Jamal Daoud, a local community worker, has no doubt many of the standover men were cronies of Khaled Sharrouf. Local Sh'ite and Alawite businessmen who were being extorted, passed information to Daoud, a Palestinian Australian sympathetic to Syria's Assad regime.

JAMAL DAOUD, SOCIAL JUSTICE NETWORK: It is a couple of hundreds (dollars) every month.

19:17

Daoud

They were asking monthly payment from these businesses, a couple of hundreds - I'm not sure about the exact amount of money.

MARIAN WILKINSON: In your view, was it extortion?

JAMAL DAOUD: It was extortion, of course.

19:43

Still. Mohamed and Ahmed Elomar

Music

19:57

MARIAN WILKINSON: One of those arrested over the threats was another boxer, Mohamed Elomar's brother, Ahmed, also a cohort of Khaled Sharrouf's. Ahmed was convicted of assaulting a local Shi'ite businessman.

JAMAL DAOUD: He refused to give the money.

19:59

Daoud

When he refused they started subjecting him to attacks, including Ahmed Elomar's attack inside the shop, when he punched him with different people, you know?

20:17

Australian Muslim protest

(Sound of protestors chanting)

20:29

MARIAN WILKINSON: In September, 2012, black flags acclaiming radical jihad made a dramatic appearance in Sydney's CBD.

20:43

(Sound of protestors chanting)

20:51

MARIAN WILKINSON:  Ahmed and Mohamed Elomar were in the vanguard of the demonstration. And Khaled Sharrouf was close behind. A march to the US consulate, ostensibly to protest against a film insulting the prophet, was hijacked by hardcore extremists.

20:55

Riot at consulate

21:16

Freeze frame on Sharrouf

NICK KALDAS: His appearance at the riot indicated that he wasn't somebody who was reformed or sworn away from violence or anything else.

21:23

Riot

MARIAN WILKINSON: Far from being reformed, Khaled Sharrouf was now publicly embracing the world's most brutal jihadist movements.

21:32

Police scrambled to contain the Hyde Park riots. Among those arrested was Ahmed Elomar who was later convicted for hitting a police officer with a flag pole.

21:42

[Protestors chant]

21:55

NICK KALDAS: The events of the day showed

22:02

Kaldas. Super:
Nick Kaldas
Deputy Commissioner, NSW Police

that there was a minority, and they were a minority, both in that group and generally in the community, who were susceptible to some pretty extreme views.

22:03

Mass prayer in Hyde Park

MARIAN WILKINSON: A notorious firebrand preacher, Hamdi Alqudsi led the protestors, including Sharrouf in prayer.

22:11

The actions of the Elomar brothers that day shocked Dr Jamal Rifi - a good friend of their highly respected father.

JAMAL RIFI: I feared about the

22:30

implication on Elomar's family as a whole because it seemed that they go from one disaster to the other.

22:43

Boxing gym

MARIAN WILKINSON: Mohamed Elomar and Khaled Sharrouf were moving in dangerous circles but not just in the Islamic world. Sydney's boxing scene gave Sharrouf an entree to the criminal underworld in Sydney's construction business.

JAMAL RIFI: I think

22:49

Rifi

Khaled was looking for a job and he found a job among people who were in the building industry and there was a debt to be collected and Khaled was hired as a 'muscle man'.

23:10

Photo.  Sharrouf and others with Mike Tyson

MARIAN WILKINSON: Two months after the Hyde Park riots, Sharrouf attended a $3,000-a-head celebrity dinner with former world heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson. On the right is a convicted criminal and ex-bikie, Bilal Fatrouni, and next to him, Sharrouf's new connection, Sydney construction boss, George Alex.

23:27

Fitzpatrick. Super:
Brian Fitzpatrick
Fmr CFMEU official

BRIAN FITZPATRICK, FORMER CFMEU OFFICIAL: I couldn't believe it, you know. Here is a man who was engaged by George to go and collect debts and now he travels half way around the world for a belief and removes people’s heads and things, I mean... Christ knows was that what was going to happen in the Union somewhat time or another, who knows? And I was just glad he was on the other side of the world to tell you truth. But I was shocked, absolutely shocked.

23:56

George Alex leaving court

MARIAN WILKINSON: George Alex told Four Corners through his lawyer he never employed Khaled Sharrouf.

GEORGE ALEX, CONSTRUCTION BOSS: No comment for now, mate.

24:20

[shot continuous]

MARIAN WILKINSON: But Alex and his associates, including Sharrouf, are now under scrutiny by police and the Royal Commission into Trade Unions. Although he's legally bankrupt Alex exerts influence over countless labour hire and scaffolding companies. These businesses regularly go bust then re-appear with new front men. They are known in the industry as "phoenix operations".

24:29

Noonan. Super:
Dave Noonan
National Construction Sec CFMEU

DAVE NOONAN, NATIONAL SECRETARY CONSTRUCTION, CFMEU: They are companies who repeatedly go into liquidation, owing money to workers and to the Australian Taxation Office and other creditors. It is an endemic problem in the building and construction industry. I think it'd be fair to say that Mr Alex, and the companies he's associated with, do fit the definition of phoenix companies.

25:00

Construction site

MARIAN WILKINSON: Phoenix operators survive on the fringe of the law often using standover men to fend off creditors and recover debts. George Alex surrounds himself with heavy ex-criminals.

BRIAN FITZPATRICK: It was pretty well known that George was...

25:23

Fitzpatrick

indeed had a lot of... friends, who were, you know, not real desirable friends in normal public life you know, including Sharrouf and so on, you know.

25:42

George Alex’s former home

MARIAN WILKINSON: Until recently, George Alex ran his operations from this house in Western Sydney where deals were done away from prying eyes. Investigators are now unravelling his affairs.

25:53

Fitzpatrick on escalator to Royal Commission

They are also targeting the powerful construction union, the CFMEU. Former union insider Brian Fitzpatrick claimed he received death threats after challenging Alex's relationship with the union.

26:14

Fitzpatrick

BRIAN FITZPATRICK: Well I don't think it'd get any more serious for the unions - for the Building Union, the CFMEU and any other union that  done business with him or even tolerated his business.

26:32

Quirk. Super:
Andrew Quirk
CFMEU official

ANDREW QUIRK, CFMEU OFFICIAL: George Alex and his associates almost, almost got to the central nervous system of the CFMEU in New South Wales and created a racketeering organisation that would have spilled beyond the building industry.

26:45

Noonan at Royal Commission

MARIAN WILKINSON: But the union's National Secretary denies it had a corrupt relationship with George Alex. He argues Alex's men got a foothold in the construction industry because building companies and Australian authorities let them.

DAVE NOONAN: The union's not perfect, but

27:01

Noonan

you would have to ask, why are the regulators in this industry asleep at the wheel? And why is the union the only body which is criticised for what are systemic failures of governance in the building and construction industry?

27:20

Royal Commission entrance

MARIAN WILKINSON: When the Royal Commission began probing Alex's relationship with the union in September, a surprise witness was on the list. Khaled Sharrouf's mother-in-law.

27:34

Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption hearing

JEREMY STOLJAR, SC, COUNSEL ASSISTING COMMISSION: Have a seat Ms Nettleton.

KAREN NETTLETON, WITNESS: Thank you.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Karen Nettleton told the Commission Sharrouf helped her get the job in George Alex's operation.

KAREN NETTLETON: An interview was arranged for me by my daughter's husband.

JEREMY STOLJAR: Is your daughter's husband a person who is an associate of Mr Alex?

27:48

[shot continuous]

KAREN NETTLETON: Yes.

JEREMY STOLJAR: And he was still in the country at that point?

KAREN NETTLETON: Yes.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Nettleton was asked to explain what Khaled Sharrouf

28:06

[sequence continues]

did for George Alex.

JEREMY STOLJAR: Did he work for Mr Alex, your son-in-law?

KAREN NETTLETON: Yes, I believe so.

JEREMY STOLJAR: What was the nature of his position?

28:14

KAREN NETTLETON: He never actually told me, but I think it was... collecting money or bodyguard or... he never physically said to me this is what he does, but I just assumed myself.

JEREMY STOLJAR: Did he spend, to your knowledge, a good deal of his time at Mr Alex's house?

KAREN NETTLETON: Yes.

28:21

Alex arrival at Royal Commission

MARIAN WILKINSON: George Alex arrived at the Royal Commission promising to explain all.

REPORTER: Mr Alex anything to say

28:43

on the way in?

GEORGE ALEX: I look forward to um... appearing next Thursday and ah... lies runs sprints and the truth runs marathons.

REPORTER: Was there $3,000...

MARIAN WILKINSON: But his evidence was abruptly postponed as the Royal Commission's investigation into him widened.

28:51

Royal Commission hearing. Super:
Jeremy Stoljar SC
Counsel Assisting Trade Unions Royal Commission

JEREMY STOLJAR: Mr Alex has close relationships with convicted criminals. He has reportedly attended functions with the like of Mr Khaled Sharrouf and Mr Bilal Fatrouni, each of whom have previously been convicted and jailed for serious criminal offences.

29:09

COMMISSIONER:  Have a seat Mr Westerway.

MARIAN WILKINSON: A former business associate of Alex, Doug Westerway, was clearly nervous when he was questioned at the Royal Commission about Alex's relationship with Sharrouf and ex-bikie, Bilal Fatrouni.

29:23

JEREMY STOLJAR: All right... and you'd now become aware that Mr Fatrouni and Mr Sharrouf were people who were at George Alex's house?

DOUG WESTERWAY, MR ALEX'S FMR BUSINESS ASSOCIATE: Yes.

29:40

JEREMY STOLJAR: And that you'd seen them working there... you'd seen them visiting there, when you'd been there?

DOUG WESTERWAY: Yes.

29:47

JEREMY STOLJAR: And had there been some disputation or conflict between... that you know of - between those persons and others?

DOUG WESTERWAY: Yes.

JEREMY STOLJAR: And what was the nature of that?

DOUG WESTERWAY: (long pause) Ah there was a um... (long pause) there was an argument over a debt collection.

29:51

Meriton website

MARIAN WILKINSON: The fraught debt collection involved Australia's biggest residential builder, Meriton, run by billionaire, Harry Triguboff.

30:25

Meriton building sites

New South Wales Police are trying to unravel just what role Khaled Sharrouf and George Alex played in debt dispute because it is now tied up in an extortion and murder investigation.

30:38

Di Carlo in underground car park

The debt dispute began after this man Tony Di Carlo, hired a Sydney debt collector last year. Di Carlo has insisted for years that his defunct building company, Bettaplex, was owed millions of dollars by Meriton.

30:52

Di Carlo

TONY DI CARLO, FMR CONSTRUCTION EXECUTIVE: The Construction and Industry Act under the Adjudication Act, have awarded us the money so I haven't decided this, there's an Act that decides how much I'm to be paid. So I'm owed this money, Mr Triguboff doesn't believe I'm owed the money.

31:13

Meriton buildings

MARIAN WILKINSON: No-one from Meriton would be interviewed about the events that follow. But Meriton's lawyers say there was no legal debt with Di Carlo's company.

31:29

Di Carlo. Super:
Tony Di Carlo
Fmr construction executive

TONY DI CARLO: All I know is we had a mercantile agent that was licensed to take the debt on, and then from there on in, I couldn't tell you who got involved or what got involved, but I definitely did not want George Alex involved in this debt.

31:42

Alex leaving court

MARIAN WILKINSON: George Alex would not be interviewed but told Four Corners through his lawyer he agreed to meet a senior Meriton executive about the debt dispute last year at a Sydney cafe.

31:54

Dramatisation of meeting

Alex says he and his business associate, Joe Antoun, met the Meriton executive along with Di Carlo's debt collector and several associates. Alex insists Khaled Sharrouf was not present. But police have been told he was.

32:09

Alex claims he was there simply to tell the debt collector and his associates that Meriton did not owe any money to Di Carlo. What really happened at this meeting is unclear but by several accounts it was extremely tense.

32:30

Dramatisation continues

BRIAN FITZPATRICK: Triguboff's man was approached in a restaurant I believe, in Chinatown, and given, some pretty severe warnings against himself and his family

32:50

Fitzpatrick. Super:
Brian Fitzpatrick
Fmr CFMEU official

that led to some pretty dangerous exchanges between a couple of the gangs who were got involved in this problem with the Meriton versus the... I think it was a company called Bettaplex run by Tony Di Carlo.

33:01

Dramatisation continues

MARIAN WILKINSON: Four Corners has been told by multiple sources that soon after the meeting,

33:21

Triguboff at function

lawyers for Meriton's billionaire boss, Harry Triguboff, informed police about the alleged extortion threat.

33:31

Di Carlo. Super:
Tony Di Carlo
Fmr construction executive

TONY DI CARLO: I don't know anything about any senior member of Meriton being threatened. That wasn't any instruction that was given by our company, myself or anybody involved with this debt. If any threats were made that was out of my, totally out of my hands.

33:40

Night driving

MARIAN WILKINSON: The debt dispute had spiralled out of control in July last year. By then, Four Corners has been told, rival standover men had become involved. They gathered in Western Sydney to try to settle the escalating dispute but Sharrouf became violent.

JAMAL RIFI: I believe at the same time

33:56

Rifi. Super:
Dr Jamal Rifi
Islamic community leader

during that meeting, Khaled Sharrouf was very abrupt, very abusive and used harsh languages, to the point, I am told that he even brandished a gun.

34:23

Kaldas

MARIAN WILKINSON: New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner, Nick Kaldas is reluctant to discuss the highly-charged debt dispute.

34:36

NICK KALDAS: It's difficult to comment on that simply because the investigation as I say is currently live, and we're not in a position to declare how much we know. We certainly have a great deal of information, and we know a great deal about what's happened.

34:45

Earlwood shooting footage

MARIAN WILKINSON: Soon after Sharrouf's confrontation with the rival standover men, police were called to this street in western Sydney. It was the night Sharrouf's business associate was gunned down at his door.

34:57

Photo. Boskovski

He was Vasko Boskovski, owner of a security business employed by George Alex's friends in the building industry.

35:14

Di Carlo

MARIAN WILKINSON: Di Carlo says he was stunned when New South Wales homicide police asked him about the murder and the involvement of George Alex and Khaled Sharrouf in his debt dispute.

35:24

TONY DI CARLO: I was questioned by the homicide squad some months later and told that somebody had been killed over this situation and then I'm being told that George Alex has been involved with this situation as well. So this is all news to me.

35:37

Photo. Boskovski

MARIAN WILKINSON: Vasko Boskovski, it turns out, owned a company with Khaled Sharrouf.

(to Nick Kaldas) What can you tell us about Sharrouf's relationship with Vasko

35:54

Kaldas

Super: Nick Kaldas
Deputy Commissioner, NSW Police

and what was going on?

NICK KALDAS: It, it's difficult to comment on the Boskovski murder simply because it is very much a live investigation at the moment. But we are aware that there was a relationship between the two of them and it is very much a part of the murder investigation that's currently afoot.

GFX: KGBV Investments

MARIAN WILKINSON: Vasko Boskovski's trust company was called KGBV Investments. Its directors were Khaled Sharrouf; his ex-bikie friend, Bilal Fatrouni; and Vasko himself. All part of George Alex's network. But the mysterious 'G' held no directorship.

36:22

Boskovski's murder rattled George Alex and his friends. Sharrouf's own safety came into question.

36:49

Kaldas

(to Nick Kaldas) How much do you think Sharrouf himself was concerned for his safety given that his friend, his colleague, had been murdered before he left Australia?

NICK KALDAS: It's difficult to... you know, it's almost impossible really, to guess what was going on in his mind, but certainly if an associate of yours is gunned down you would be concerned.

36:56

Sydney protest

37:17

MARIAN WILKINSON: The two worlds of Khaled Sharrouf: radical Jihadist and standover-man collided with the Boskovski killing. Within months, he was planning his exit to Syria.

NICK KALDAS: There's no definitive answer as to why he left, but clearly all of those things probably played on his mind.

37:20

Kaldas

He did have a conflict, there were people who were not happy with him in the criminal milieu, and obviously, ultimately he took up a cause over there. I think it's probably a combination of everything. But it's impossible to know what exactly went through his mind.

37:40

Lithgow property Rockview

MARIAN WILKINSON: A few weeks before he left Australia, Khaled Sharrouf brought his young son to this remote rural property in New South Wales. One purpose: target practice.

37:53

Four Corners can reveal George Alex was with him. Alex told us he had been depressed and the trip was arranged, "as a pick-me-up".

38:07

Photo. Sharrouf, Elomar, Ammouche

Along with Sharrouf was Mohamed Elomar, and another radical Islamist, Omar Ammouche.

38:18

Court house exterior

Local police were called after complaints of repeated gunfire. They found Sharrouf holding up a rifle and charged him.

38:27

NICK KALDAS: He was served with a field court attendance notice,

38:38

Kaldas

which is still outstanding in relation to unauthorised possession of a weapon. Because of his background, obviously, this did become something that we had a very good look at.

38:43

Sydney International Airport

MARIAN WILKINSON: Less than a month after Sharrouf's shooting charge, he arrived undetected at Sydney's international airport. There, Four Corners has been told, he met with George Alex's then girlfriend.

38:52

Airport interior. Departures

Sharrouf then presented his brother's passport and a first-class ticket to Malaysia and was waved through Immigration. He was off to meet Mohamed Elomar who had departed days earlier.

JAMAL RIFI: I was stunned to be honest.

39:10

Rifi

It is a fact that he left undetected using his brother's passport without the authority knowing. Then I found out about Mohamed joining him.

39:28

Departure photo

MARIAN WILKINSON: Four Corners can reveal an alert was in fact triggered when Sharrouf presented his brother's passport because his brother has some minor criminal convictions. But the alert did not stop Sharrouf leaving.

39:41

MAS Plane in flight

Music

39:58

MARIAN WILKINSON: A later inquiry found the blunder was, "within reasonable tolerances", but procedures have since been tightened. But for some it was inexplicable.

ANTHONY WHEALY: Very disappointed. I know when I go to the airport, I stand for a long while in front of immigration authorities,

40:03

Whealy. Super:
Hon Anthony Whealy
Fmr NSW Supreme Court Judge

they look carefully at me, they enter my details in a computer. How somebody like Sharrouf managed to slip through completely escapes me, but, you know, it was a very unfortunate exercise by the immigration authorities of their powers.

40:22

Still of Sharrouf in combat gear

MARIAN WILKINSON: On his arrival in Syria, Sharrouf taunted Australian Federal Police tweeting their media unit.

40:41

Tweet message on phone

@AFPmedia I'm free you afp dog and it’s apparent who won I got out of jail and got out I was facing life haha and i played use". (sic)

40:52

Raqqa City

41:05

MARIAN WILKINSON: In August this year, Sharrouf and Elomar were in Islamic State's stronghold Raqqa City in Syria, the seat of its so-called Caliphate.

41:08

Excerpt from: The Spread of the Caliphate: The Islamic State

Outside the city, a bloody battle with government forces ended with the summary execution and beheading of scores of Syrian soldiers. The heads of IS opponents, whether military or civilian, became a common spectacle in Raqqa City.

41:20

Malinowski. Super:
Tom Malinowski
US Asst. Sec. of State for Human Rights

TOM MALINOWSKI: We have these grisly images of heads being displayed in a medieval fashion in communities as a warning to the population that this is what can happen to you if you cross us, if you get in our way.

41:46

Still. Elomar holding severed heads

MARIAN WILKINSON: Mohamed Elomar and Khaled Sharrouf have come to personify the terrorist group whose barbarity is almost beyond comprehension.

41:58

Still. Sharrouf holding severed head

Federal Police are drawing up mass murder charges against Sharrouf. But for now, unfettered, Sharrouf continues on his violent path. The western gangster jihadist: a criminal parading as a religious fighter.

42:10

Jihadist with black flag

A tool for Islamic State to inspire new Australian recruits to its savagery.

42:31

Outpoint

42:44