The woman who put Sydney’s Skaf gang rapists in jail has had a chilling encounter with one of the evil attackers when he suddenly appeared beside her in a Ferrari.
Margaret Cunneen SC, now a defence barrister, came across the rapist – known only as ‘MG’ for legal reasons – as she waited to cross the road alone at night at a set of traffic lights in the city’s CBD.
She revealed her attention was drawn to the gleaming white sports car, complete with flash gold trim, without realising at first who was driving.
Ms Cunneen told the Mamamia podcast True Crime Conversations that she had simply been admiring what a beautiful sportscar it was.
‘I was walking in Park Street, Sydney. I’d just got out of an Uber with some friends,’ she told podcaster Gemma Bath. ‘I was crossing Park Street to get a cab or bus.
‘It was dark and there was a beautiful white Ferrari purring at the lights – and I do like cars a lot. It had gold trim and was really new. I’d never seen such a beautiful Ferrari.
‘It was making this beautiful noise and I must confess as I walked across in front of it in the dark, I was looking at it, not looking at the driver.
”When I got to the other side, the window wound down and [the driver] said, “Margaret! Do you know who it is?” I said, “No, but I like your car” and he said, “it’s [name]” and it was MG….And he sped off.’
Margaret Cunneen SC, now a prominent Sydney defence barrister, had the eerie encounter with rapist ‘MG’ on a Sydney street after dark, when he drew up alongside her in a ‘purring white Ferrari’

MG was one of the nine gang rapists labelled by Cunneen as Bilal Skaf’s (pictured) ‘enthusiastic lieutenant’ in the reign of terror which shocked the nation and a judge called ‘worse than murder’

Although 14 men participated in the rapes, only nine were convicted and jailed after police swooped on the Skaf gang (above under surveillance before their arrest) as they trawled Bondi Beach for their next victims
She added: ‘It was so eerie, I couldn’t believe it. I texted my friends “I’m telling you now in case anything happens”.
‘I wasn’t frightened or anything because he had a big smile on his face and, my goodness, he’s got a Ferrari and I haven’t.
‘It wasn’t menacing but …. he was pretty triumphant.’
MG was one of nine Skaf gang rapists later jailed for the series of rapes which rocked the city just weeks before the Sydney Olympics began in September 2000.
As Crown Prosecutor at several of the rapists’ trials, Cunneen was spat at outside court and called a ‘sharmoota’ – meaning ‘whore’ in Arabic – by one female relative.
The encounter a few months ago in late 2024 came 22 years after MG was convicted of raping young Sydney women in the infamous Skaf gang rape trials.
The attacks were so degrading and demeaning, the trial judge at the time described them as ‘worse than murder’.
MG was labelled at the trial by Cunneen as the ‘enthusiastic lieutenant’ of Bilal Skaf, who orchestrated the attacks with his brother Mohammed and at least six other young Lebanese Australian men.

Margaret Cunneen was walking after dark in Sydney’s Park Street when she saw a white Ferrari and the car’s driver spotted her and wound down the window: it was MG one of the Skaf rapists she’d locked up in 2002

The barrister said she saw a beautiful white Ferrari purring at the lights (above, stock image) and the driver sang out ‘Margaret! Do you know who it is?’ She said the ‘eerie’ encounter didn’t frighten her but the rapist had looked ‘triumphant’

MG and his fellow rapists lured two schoolgirls to Northcote Park near his home where the teenagers were sexually assaulted, kicked and thrown into bushes

One girl was lured by Mohammed Skaf (above) who she believed was her friend, and then raped by his brother Bilal and another man, who held a gun to her head and kicked her in the stomach
The Skaf gang’s reign of terror began on began on August 4, but the intended 14-year-old victim escaped.
Then came the first successful attack, on the evening of August 10, 2000 when MG and others including his friend and neighbour Bilal Skaf attacked two schoolgirls they picked up at Chatswood shopping centre around 9pm.
Over the next 25 days, three more rapes were perpetrated by Bilal Skaf’s gang, which included his 16-year-old brother Mohammed, upon victims as young as 16.
One girl was lured by Mohammed Skaf, who she believed was her friend, and then raped by his brother Bilal and another man, who held a gun to her head and kicked her in the stomach.
Another young woman was raped 25 times by a total of 14 men in a six-hour ordeal, before the men then hosed her down with a firehose.
In the final attack, three men raped two 16-year-old girls in a house over five hours, telling them: ‘You deserve it because you’re an Australian’.
In September, NSW Police placed several suspects under surveillance, including the Skafs, Hajeid and MG.
On October 7, Mohammed Skaf and Tayyab Skeikh picked up two 16-year-old girls at Strathfield railway concourse for a drive, but police were in pursuit.

Mohammed Skaf was released from jail in 2021. His brother Bilal is the only original rape gang member still in jail and is not due for release before 2033


Margaret Cunneen, now a busy defence barrister (right, with Kulwinder Singh who she successfully defended when he pleaded not guilty to setting his wife alight) credits that partly with MG recognising her on a dark street 20 years later
When Skaf said ‘let’s all have a gang bang,’ the girls leapt from the car as it stopped in traffic at Paddington.
The men continued on to Bondi Beach, where they met up with other including Bilal Skaf, Belal Hajeid, Mahmoud Chami and MG, and began trawling for more victims before police later swooped.
Margaret Cunneen prosecuted several trials against nine men involving multiple different victims.
But she told the Mamamia podcast: ‘Only nine of the 15 were caught, so five or six got away with it.’
In 2019, MG was convicted of 10 charges including aggravated sexual assault, detention and assault of both Ms F and Ms P.
Originally sentenced to 40 years with a minimum non-parole period of 26 years for his role in the gang rapes, he was granted a retrial in 2004.
While serving a reduced sentence, MG had his own triumph in 2007, when he was found not guilty of the gang rape of a woman known as Miss C in August 2000.
Ms Cunneen had been replaced at the retrial by a new prosecutor, Lou Lungo, who only had a few weeks to prepare for the trial.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal had taken her off the case because she had made comments about the case at a lecture to law students.
Ms C did not want to testify and the trial only took only her statement, Ms Cunneen told the podcast.
‘I’d promised her I’d stay with her through it always,’ she said. ‘Someone else did the case … and it was not successful [but] I’m not being critical.’
‘Ferrari man’, or MG, was acquitted. Hs served the rest of his reduced sentence for the rapes of Ms F and Ms P and was released on parole in December 2015.
MG has since served more jail time for drug crimes, but released on parole. Bilal Skaf is the only original rape gang member still in jail.
In 2005, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal reduced Skaf’s 55 year maximum sentence to a maximum of 28 years. His earliest release date is in 2033.
Ms Cunneen credits her new role as a defence barrister for MG recognising her on a dark street 20 years later.
She added: ‘I’m told criminals in jail talk about lawyers a lot.’
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