Security cameras have captured the shocking moment a 90-year old great grandfather aided by a walking stick calmly cocks his handgun before opening fire on a tradie.
Paolo Mannici, now 90, had just watched the tradesman dump another load of dodgy soil on his Ravenhall industrial lot – west of Melbourne – when he took the law into his own hands.
Armed with a .22 calibre Beretta handgun, Mannici, of East keilor, is seen wobbling over to his victim with the aid of a walking stick and priming the weapon.
Italian immigrant Paolo Mannici (pictured) had spent 70 years in Australia without a single brush with the law before taking it into his own hands.
On Wednesday, the County Court of Victoria heard Mannici fired two shots at his victim from near point blank range.
One bullet tore through the man’s arm before he was able to take the elderly shooter down.
The Italian immigrant had spent 70 years in Australia without a single brush with the law before taking it into his own hands with the Gran Torino-style assault.
Mannici had just days earlier made a report to police about the tradie alleging he was not only dumping rubbish on his property, but had assaulted him.
He now faces anywhere up to 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to owning an illegal firearm and conduct endangering life.
Despite his guilty plea, Mannici’s barrister, Dr Theo Alexander, told Judge Damian Murphy his client’s victim was anything but an innocent one.
The court heard the tradie, whom Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to name, had a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for theft, obtaining property by deception, breaching a suspended sentence, breaching an intervention order, making threats to kill and drug trafficking.
‘(He) has a history of dishonesty … in my submission, one should be circumspect before accepting what (the victim) says,’ Dr Alexander said.
Mannici had been in dispute with the tradie over an unpaid bill for clearing works on the lot he claimed had not been fulfilled.
The tradie had stopped work after allegedly finding contaminated soil on the site from tyres previously burnt and buried there.
‘That’s not true,’ Dr Alexander said of the contaminated soil.
‘What (he) says about there being oozing black material coming out of the ground, that justified him ceasing working, was untrue.’
Clint Eastwood played a grumpy old man who liked to pack heat in a 2008 film titled Gran Torino
Victorian Police officers are seen at a crime scene on a work site in Ravenhall where Mannici shot a man
Mannici, who had already paid $15,00 for the works and owned another $12,500, was told it would cost him another $1000 per truckload to move the contaminated soil.
When he refused to pay, the tradie reported Mannici to the Environment Protection Authority and local council.
Dr Alexander said his client had paid the tradie a large sum of cash up front and had no reason not to pay him unless the work had not been completed as agreed.
‘There is rubbish everywhere. It’s not true to say as (the victim) does that the site was cleaned and (he) was doing soil work. It’s not true to say as (he) does that there were tyres buried and burnt. The EPA went out there,’ Dr Alexander said.
The court heard there was no evidence that yres had been burnt and left ‘oozing black material’ behind.
Dr Alexander said his client’s victim had intimidated his grandson after downing tools and demanding the remainder of his payment.
The court was read a series of exchanges, one in which the victim told Mannici’s grandson he would continue to pursue his elderly grandfather for the money.
‘It is out of hand and I’ll continue to attack him until it costs him one hundred thousand or more. I’ll not sleep until this mess breaks his back,’ the victim texted.
When offered an additional $5000 to finish the clean-up, the victim refused, telling the family he had been to court numerous times and ‘won every time’.
Paolo Mannici (pictured) is seen at his home after being granted bail for a shooting at a work site in Melbourne
Mannici was seen wearing a black apron as he walked out the front to collect fruit from a tree
On the day of the shooting, the victim was captured on CCTV dumping another truckload of soil on Maccini’s property.
‘That vision that we saw was him dumping, on the day of the offence, dumping another truckload of material on the property of a man who he obviously believed was so old and so vulnerable that he could act with impunity,’ Dr Alexander said.
When Mannici’s actions were described as a borderline vigilante, Dr Alexander did not take a step back.
‘To the extent that this man felt frustrated, unassisted by authorities, unable to do anything to stop this person from continuing their contemptuous treatment – then yes, it would be described as vigilantism,’ Dr Alexander said.
The court heard Mannici had not intended to actually shoot his victim.
‘I just wanted to scare him with the gun to stop him dumping rubbish, not hurt him,’ Mannici told a forensic psychiatrist.
‘I went over to him and he grabbed me and the gun went off. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I know I was wrong. I did the wrong thing.’
The court heard Mannici had filed a whopping 52 character witnesses attesting to his previous good character.
Police apprehended Mannici after witnesses tackled him to the ground
A man who continued to dump rubbish at Mannici’s business allegedly copped a bullet
In a lengthy victim impact statement, the court heard Mannici’s victim now suffered impotence from the medications linked to his injury.
‘This places a huge impact on my manhood and the way I feel about myself. I feel as though I am not a man,’ he told the court.
The victim endured an eight-hour operation on the day he was shot and continues to suffer and range of mental and physical injuries.
‘I don’t go a single day without thinking of the gun and the man behind the trigger,’ he said.
‘There is no escape for me, not a moment of peace or relief. I don’t feel safe anymore and the comfort I used to find in the presence of others is gone.’
Mannici will be sentenced on Thursday.