Craig Christian: One of WA’s most notorious underworld figures dies, aged 60

Notorious WA underworld figure Craig Christian is dead.

The long-time police target and one-time butcher died of natural causes last night at his home in Wanneroo.

It is understood the 60-year-old suffered a heart attack in his sleep.

Christian was an on-again, off-again meth user who was on drugs charges when he died.

His addiction meant he never rose to king-pin status in the world of organised crime and he usually acted as muscle.

A handy boxer, he was a close associate of Northbridge identity John Kizon.

The pair dominated headlines in the 1990s and early 2000s courtesy of the deaths of two men.

Phillip Morrison was 21 when his head hit the pavement in Leederville on August 4, 1994.

Christian was the man who caused the fall but said he was acting in self-defence.

Police claimed Kizon called an ambulance before driving Christian away as onlookers unsuccessfully tried to revive Morrison.

Christian flew to Melbourne. His vanishing act and subsequent not guilty plea to the manslaughter charge levelled at him outraged newly appointed police commissioner Bob Falconer, who cut his teeth in Melbourne.

“I’ve encountered people like that in another place and when you get right down to it, they are just thugs,” Falconer said.

“All of a sudden, they become cult figures, that they are untouchable, unassailable and that nothing can be done about them.”

Christian would prove untouchable again soon after Morrison bled out on Oxford Street.

Andrew Petrelis was 34 when he was found dead in Queensland on September 11, 1995.

Petrelis’ passing from a heroin overdose would have gone largely unnoticed had it not been for one thing – he was in the witness protection program when took his last breath.

Perth detectives Martin Voyez and Tom Clay had convinced him to give evidence in a drug conspiracy trial against Kizon.

Kizon’s friend Michael Rippingale, who was mates with Christian, was also in the frame.

Petrelis was in a safe house when he died and inquiries by police revealed serving officers Sergeant. Murray Shadgett and Constable Kevin Davy used police computers to access Petrelis’s new covert details.

The drugs case against Kizon and Rippingale collapsed but the suspicious circumstances of Petrelis’ meant the pair – and Christian – were still in hot water.

In 2006 a Queensland coroner concluded that Petrelis had self-administered the fatal dose of heroin.

“It is quite clear — as I have indicated — that Kizon had a reason, a very good reason, a substantial reason to have Petrelis out of the way and unable to testify against both himself and Rippingale at the pending criminal trial,” coroner Michael Halliday found.

“However, one may speculate, and however one may guess and surmise, there is at the end of the day, having regard to the relevant standard of proof, no evidence before this inquest sufficient to implicate Kizon with the death of the deceased.”

The coroner said that the stash of cannabis which resulted in Petrelis becoming a protected witness in the middle of 1995 was “thought to be owned” by Christian, who was in custody awaiting trial over the murder of Morrison when the alleged drugs conspiracy was being investigated.

He was behind bars with his future brother-in-law Vince Italiano, who was on remand for the murder of former Adelaide man Frank Mazzarino in a fight at a West Perth mechanics in 1992.

Mazzarino’s decayed body was found in a shallow grave at Lancelin six months later.

A jury acquitted Italiano but convicted his co-accused Paul Berghella.

Christian would go onto marry Italiano’s sister Stella. A week before their wedding, Stella was slashed above the eye during a fight at Northbridge’s Post office nightclub.

The altercation between off-duty cops and members of Kizon’s group resulted in Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto being convicted of assault.

In a rare television interview in 2019 Christian said: “People think I’m a bad bloke, that I’ve done bad things but when the truth comes out the people of Perth will be in shock.”

Two years ago the one-time boxing promoter had pleaded not guilty to driving with a prescribed illicit drug in oral fluid or blood.

He was fighting separate charges of selling meth after he was one of 12 people arrested as part of a Midland detectives drug investigation.

That inquiry resulted in a total of 168 charges in total. Christian was facing five of those, including two counts of conspired, incited, accessory after the fact or attempted to possess a trafficable quantity of methylamphetamine with intent to sell or supply.

Christian was also accused of possessing a prohibited weapon charge and a no authority to drive charge.