Sex worker with gangster Bilal Hamze as he was shot dead ‘really shaken up’

New details of how “shaken up” a sex worker was after witnessing the shooting of gangster Bilal Hamze have been revealed in court. Bilal Hamze was gunned down outside the Kid Kyoto restaurant on June 17, 2021, where he had been dining with a sex worker just minutes earlier, a court was previously told. The woman earlier told a jury how Mr Hamze, who she knew as her friend “Bill”, was “grunting” after 10 shots were fired at him, and that she had to hang up on triple-zero as she was “screaming and couldn’t talk”. Text messages previously read out in court revealed she had been texting another friend of hers, Matthew Jarjoura, right before the shooting. Mr Jarjoura was called as a witness in the murder trial on Thursday, where he told a jury how the sex worker was “really shaken up” after the shooting. “She was devastated,” Mr Jarjoura told the court. “She was crying, she was really shaken up — never seen her like that before.” He told the court he was at the Hemmesphere bar in the CBD when he spoke to the sex worker over the phone that evening, hearing “gunshots” before the call was cut. “(We were) talking for a little bit … and then I heard something in the background like a loud noise, sounded obviously like gunshots,” Mr Jarjoura told the court. “Think a scream or something, then the phone shut … that’s when I messaged after. “(I) heard something, it didn’t sound right.” Mr Jarjoura said his friend usually answered him right away and he was meant to see her later that evening, so it was “a little bit weird” that she was not responding to her texts and calls. He was later told there had been a shooting nearby, and a cop or a taxi driver said a girl was with the man who was shot, Mr Jarjoura told the court. How alleged gangland shooting of Bilal Hamze and alleged plot to kill his brother Ibrahem unfolded Mr Jarjoura “put two and two together”, as the person described a woman who looked like his friend, who was not answering him. He later picked the woman up from the police station in the early hours of June 18. Mr Jarjoura told the court his friend allegedly used to see people “involved in criminal activity, drug dealers and stuff like that” in her role as a sex worker. “I don’t lie in court” Proceedings got tense on Thursday when lawyer Robert Deppeler suggested Mr Jarjoura could not have heard gunshots while he was on the phone with the woman, as they were fired less than a second after their call ended. “You could not have heard shots being fired because the shots had not occurred,” Mr Deppeler suggested. “I heard a bang … heard it was a shooting later,” Mr Jarjoura replied. “I heard bangs, the phone shut, I heard a bit of a scream. “I don’t lie in court.” Mr Deppeler had told the court Mr Jarjoura had allegedly called the sex worker about 10.23.18pm, with the call ending at 10.23.40pm: the first shots were fired at 10.23.41, he said. Mr Jarjoura asked if he could call his lawyer at one stage when asked questions about his conversation with police in July 2021. “Can I call my lawyer and take a break? … I’m just confused,” he told the court. “No, just answer the questions,” Acting Justice Robert Allan Hulme replied. He also attempted to “object” to questions about whether he recalled telling police the sex worker had no involvement in the shooting, and he would have known if she had been involved. “Can I object to this?” Mr Jarjoura asked. “No,” Justice Hulme said. “I don’t remember,” Mr Jarjoura said. Mr Jarjoura said he had “no clue” who was responsible for shooting Mr Hamze, and that he had no involvement. He often replied with “I don’t remember” during his evidence, including when Mr Deppeler asked if he agreed he had been with the sex worker earlier the same day Mr Hamze was shot. Mr Jarjoura’s evidence was heard in the trial of Samuel John Rokomaqisa, a man who allegedly had links to the Alameddine family and is accused of Hamze’s murder and allegedly plotting to kill the gangster’s younger brother, Ibrahem. Mr Rokomaqisa has entered not guilty pleas to murder, conspiring to murder and aggravated assault.