Vic: Man jailed for 19 years for taxi driver's murder
MELBOURNE, Dec 12 AAP - A homeless man who shot dead a Melbourne taxi driver was todayjailed for a maximum of 19 years.
Victorian Supreme Court judge Justice Bernard Teague said Edward Shane Ng had murderon his mind when he shot dead cabbie Cameron Rudd two years ago.
The judge said he did not accept Ng's explanation the gun "just went off" and the firingwas unintended.
"I have found that, when you fired the fatal shot, you intended to kill Cameron Rudd,"
Justice Teague said.
Justice Teague said taxi drivers were vulnerable to attacks.
"The community would expect that the random killing of one of them would not be dealtwith leniently," he said.
The court heard on the night of November 14, 2000, Ng was prowling around the outer-suburbanCranbourne shopping centre with a loaded nine millimetre handgun, cocked and ready tofire when he chose his victim.
Ng, 35, got inside the rear nearside seat of Mr Rudd's taxi, telling him to drive to Dandenong.
A short time later, 33-year-old Mr Rudd was dead from a bullet wound to the head.
Ng, having eased aside the 113kg body of Mr Rudd, then drove the taxi to an industrialarea in Dandenong.
He lifted Mr Rudd's body to the ground, stole cash from his wallet, which he threwdown a drain, then drove back to Cranbourne.
Justice Teague said Ng would probably have got away with the murder if he hadn't heldon to the handgun.
Weeks later, police caught Ng driving a stolen car. He tried to escape, dropping abag containing the murder weapon, as he ran away.
Five months later, firearms experts established the link between the gun and the bulletwhich killed Mr Rudd.
Justice Teague said Ng at the time of the murder had lost his job as a baker and wasliving in his car. He decided to rob someone because he had no cash and was hungry.
Ng was ordered to serve a minimum non-parole term of 14 years.
AAP sew/jlw/mg/sb
KEYWORD: RUDD
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