After fleeing Iran, Monis settled in western Sydney and married Noleen Hayson Pal. It is believed the pair had two children. At some point he started calling himself Sheik Haron, although it is believed he had no religious training and Shia religious leaders publicly called on him to stop using the title.
...It is not known when Droudis came into Monis’s life, but we do know how Pal, his wife, left it — she was killed. In April 21 last year, firefighters were called to a fire in an apartment block in Werrington and found her dead in a stairwell. She had been stabbed numerous times.
Droudis was charged with her murder. Monis was charged with being an accessory, before and after the fact, in the murder of the mother of his two children. Both were eventually granted bail in December last year after a magistrate found that the case against both of them was weak.
The murder of Pal came towards the end of another long legal battle. In 2009 Monis was charged with sending offensive letters to families of Australian soldiers who had been killed in Afghanistan. It is believed he made contact with at least seven families. One of those letters was to the family of Private Greg Sher, a Jew, who had served with the 1st Commando Unit. Droudis phoned his family, days after his death, claiming she wanted to post a condolence letter. Felix Sher, the soldier’s father, said he was appalled when the letter arrived. “A Jewish man who kills innocent Muslim civilians is not a pig, he is a thousand times worse,” it said. “Why should we call a pig a hero?”]
In another incident a woman, believed to be Droudis, attended the funeral of Sergeant Brent Till, who was killed in 2009, defusing a bomb. She handed a letter to the dead soldier’s wife, Breanna Till — the letter said her husband was a murderer.
...After shopping around, Monis found lawyer Hugo Aston. Aston told him he thought he had a case for an appeal against his conviction, for sending letters to the families of dead Diggers.
“It seemed there was a case here for the High Court to determine the veracity of the legislation under which he was charged,” Aston said yesterday. “Basically, on the implied right to free speech, because not only did he send the letters to families of the deceased he also sent them to politicians.”
How much did this appeal cost? “I wouldn’t have a clue, it was all funded through the public purse, Legal Aid.”