EXCLUSIVE
When pack rapist Mohammed Skaf was released on parole after 21 years in jail, the serial predator was warmly welcomed back into his family home in Sydney’s south-western suburbs.
Shouts of excitement could be heard from inside the Greenacre house in October 2021 as Mohammed was reunited with mother Baria, father Mustapha, sister Noora and brother Hadi.
However three years later, the once-united Skaf clan appears to be fracturing, with police recently seeking apprehended violence orders to protect 27-year-old Noora from both Mohammed and Hadi.
The AVO application against Mohammed was withdrawn and dismissed at Bankstown Local Court last October when he appeared without legal representation.
But an interim order made in the same court against 25-year-old Hadi the next month is still in place and will be back before a magistrate on Wednesday.
The apparent split must come as a blow to driving instructor Baria and longtime railway worker Mustapha, who fought to protect Noora and Hadi during the decades their sons spent in jail.
Noora was a toddler and Hadi an infant when Mohammed and older brother Bilal committed a series of pack rapes across the city’s south-west in the weeks before the 2000 Olympic Games.
Bilal led a gang of Lebanese-Australian youths whose coordinated attacks on white teenage victims were described as ‘worse than murder’ by sentencing judge Michael Finnane.
Police have recently applied for apprehended violence orders to protect Noora El Skaf (above) from her brothers Mohammed and Hadi Skaf. Mohammed Skaf was released from prison in October 2021 after serving 21 years for a series of pack rapes
The group raped at least six women and girls who were were held against their will and repeatedly sexually assaulted in four attacks that shocked Australia and raised racial tensions to fever pitch in NSW.
Mohammed, who was convicted in relation to two of the rapes, was 17 at the time of the offences and is now 41. Bilal was almost 19 and turns 44 in September.
Judge Finnane originally jailed Mohammed for 32 years in October 2002, but after a series of further convictions and appeals that term was reduced to a maximum of 22 years, 11 months and 30 days.
Seven other gang members served prison terms and have since been released, with only Bilal still behind bars. He is not eligible for parole until 2033 when he will be 51 years old.
Weeks before Mohammed left prison, Noora told Daily Mail Australia the family was ready to welcome her then 38-year-old brother back into the fold.
‘We’re looking forward to him coming home and hopefully he’ll start a life that we’ve never experienced before,’ she said. ‘We’re pretty excited and happy for him to come home.’
The Skafs live on a quiet bottlebrush-lined street about 1.7km from Gosling Park – the location of one of the gang’s pack rapes took place in August 2000.
Mohammed had lured a 16-year-old girl he knew to the park where Bilal and a second gang member raped her while a dozen more young men stood around laughing.
The AVO application against Mohammed Skaf was withdrawn and dismissed in October. An interim order made in the same court against Hadi Skaf the next month is still in place
Mustapha and Baria Skaf (both above) fought to protect their young children Noora (far left) and Hadi (far right) from publicity over the crimes committed by their older brothers Bilal and Mohammed
The second gang member held a gun to the teen’s head and kicked her in the stomach before she was able to escape.
Less than three weeks after the Gosling Park attack, Mohammed was the leader of four young men who approached an 18-year-old woman at Bankstown train station.
Mohammed took the woman’s phone and led her to public toilets in nearby Marion Street where he told her: ‘You won’t get your phone back until you f*** me.’
When the young woman refused Mohammed said, ‘I’m going to f*** you Leb-style’, then turned her around and raped her against a wall.
The woman was raped 25 times by 14 attackers at three locations in an ordeal that lasted six hours. She was asked if ‘Leb c*** tasted better than Aussie c***’ before being sprayed with an industrial hose.
Judge Finnane compared the Skaf gang’s depravity to outrages committed by invading armies in times of war.
‘These were not random attacks and, in my view, they were aimed at creating terror in the community,’ Judge Finnane found.
Judge Finnane had also been forced to warn the Skaf’s mother he would jail her if she did not stop abusing three of the young rape victims who were present in court.
The Skaf family has lived for decades on a quiet street in Greenacre. A policeman is pictured outside the house after a gunman fired shots into the house in November 2022
Baria was banned from visiting NSW prisons for two years in September 2002 when she attempted to smuggle two letters Bilal had written to his fiancée while in Goulburn’s Supermax jail.
Mohammed, who has never publicly apologised to his victims, walked out of Long Bay jail wearing a white Hugo Boss top, black track pants, sunglasses and a Covid-19 mask on October 6, 2021.
He was embraced by mother Baria behind the front door of the family home when dropped off at Greenacre about 40 minutes later.
The next day Mohammed lost his temper with the media after he returned from reporting to Corrections Community officers at Bankstown to comply with his parole.
Mohammed tried to cover his face with paperwork from the child protection register as he ordered Noora take pictures of reporters and photographers.
Four months before Mohammed’s release, Hadi had pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
In June that year he sold three bags of what was actually Panadol to a woman outside the Dolphin Hotel in inner-city Surry Hills.
A week after Mohammed’s release Hadi faced magistrate Miranda Moody over the amateurish dial-a-dealer operation.
Baria Skaf was banned from NSW prisons for two years for attempting to smuggle two letters out of Goulburn’s Supermax jail for her son Bilal (above). Mustapha Skaf is also pictured
Publicity surrounding Hadi’s arrest and Mohammed’s release were tendered to Downing Centre Local Court court before sentencing.
‘I note that he is the brother of Mohammed Skaf who has had some notoriety in this state and who has apparently been recently released from prison,’ Ms Moody said.
Ms Moody accepted Hadi had brought further shame on his parents, who had ‘endured so much in their lives’ and was himself suffering depression and anxiety, ‘which is not surprising’.
Taking into account Hadi’s age, guilty pleas, remorse and prospects for rehabilitation, the magistrate did not record a conviction and instead imposed a two-year conditional release order.
Hadi was again arrested with four other men in October 2022 in the car park of the WM Hotel at Bass Hill.
Four months before Mohammed’s release, Hadi (above) jeopardised his brother’s living arrangements by pleading guilty to supplying cocaine and dealing with the proceeds of crime
Police alleged Hadi and his co-accused were planning to assault a man rumoured to be involved in kidnapping a jeweller.
Hadi was charged with being armed with intent to commit an indictable offences, possessing a loaded firearm in a public place and being carried in a stolen car.
The following month police were called to the Skaf family home after reports of shots being fired at the property. A vehicle was seen driving away from the address moments after the shooting.The shooting led to the revelation that the
Skaf home had been completely and permanently blurred on Google Street View since Mohammed got out of custody.
[Anyone can apply to have their face, car registration and house blurred on Google, if they provide a reasonable reason, but it is up to the multinational company if they grant the request].
Two days after the drive-by, Hadi sought to have his bail conditions varied so he could leave the family home and move to Queensland with his partner.
Two days after that, Hadi’s bail was revoked when he was allegedly caught driving with drugs in his system.
He was again granted bail in the Supreme Court in December on condition his father provided a $1million surety.
‘Your father’s life savings are at risk,’ Justice Desmond Fagan told Hadi.
Bilal Skaf (above) led a gang of Lebanese-Australian youths whose attacks on white teenage victims were described as ‘worse than murder’ by sentencing judge Michael Finnane
Mohammed Skaf (above), who was convicted in relation to two of the rapes, was 17 at the time of the offences and is now 41. Bilal was almost 19 and turns 44 in September
Hadi was back in court in June 2024 when he was found guilty of driving a stolen Audi Q7 SUV and using a tracking device to monitor the target which led to the Bass Hill arrest.
Charges of possessing a loaded .32 calibre Fabrique National pistol, being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and kidnapping in company were dropped.
What the intentions were for that day have never been fully explained.
At his sentencing hearing a month later, lawyer Oussama Elafawal disputed the prosecution’s claim Hadi had shown no remorse for his role in the caper.
In January 2023, Mohammed commenced a short-lived relationship with 32-year-old Alexandra Mastropetros (above), according to court documents
‘Your Honour has available to you to suggest Mr Skaf has taken a positive turn in his life,’ Mr Elfawal told magistrate Glenn Bartley. ‘There are no further offences and he has been attending TAFE.
‘The reality is this young man, before these charges, never served a term of full-time custody. When he did, there was a flick of a switch and there were no further offences.’
But Mr Bartley noted Hadi’s previous offending and rejected the ‘flick of the switch’ prison epiphany.
Mr Bartley sentenced Hadi to two concurrent conditional release orders with conditions that he address his drug problems and undergo mental health therapy.
Hadi had mixed results at an appeal hearing into various sentences and convictions held in the Downing Centre District Court just before Christmas.
Judge Julia Baly confirmed Hadi’s local court sentences for supplying drugs and dealing with the proceeds of crime but quashed a conviction for driving with an illicit drug in his system.
She also set aside his conviction for installing a tracking device and varied other sentences.
Judge Baly imposed two 12-month intensive correction orders for driving recklessly and not stopping during a police pursuit, and 80 hours of community service.
He was disqualified from driving for 18 months from November 21.
In January 2023, Mohammed commenced a short-lived relationship with 32-year-old Alexandra Mastropetros, according to court documents.
Mastropetros told Daily Mail Australia she had met Mohammed through a mutual friend and while he looked familiar she had no idea he was one of the country’s most notorious rapists.
In February the next year Mastropetros was sentenced to an 18-month intensive correction order after pleading guilty to intimidating Mohammed during a May 2023 telephone conversation.
She had also admitted to an unrelated charge of supplying drugs by smuggling methamphetamine worth about $100,000 into Hunter Correctional Centre.
