Zana Pali claims Brighton locals ‘live in fear’ of crime amid Bec Judd’s war with Dan Andrews

Bec Judd’s reality TV friend has jumped to her defence claiming locals have formed a ‘neighbourhood watch’ against home invasions in their ultra-rich suburb. 

My Kitchen Rules star Zana Pali and with her husband Gianni Romano are building a new mansion in Brighton, Melbourne’s fourth wealthiest suburb, after selling a $5 million one last year.

The suburb made headlines last week when Ms Judd, a fellow resident and social media influencer, claimed she felt ‘unsafe’ in her $7.3 million mansion. 

Pali claimed on Instagram on Monday night that there was a ‘clear target’ on the Bayside which was causing ‘anxiety and fear among the community’.

The mother-of-two claimed ‘it was only a matter of time before someone gets killed’ and said she had received ‘countless’ messages from other worried locals who said they were scared to sleep at night in fear of being robbed.

‘Whilst I agree crime has increased all over Victoria there is a clear pattern that Bayside residents are being targeted,’ she wrote to Instagram on Monday night.

‘We are urging that the Victorian Government act now. We need police presence in the community to feel safe.’

The lawyer told the Herald Sun she and other locals had formed several WhatsApp groups to monitor crime in their swanky area. 

‘We are part of a neighbourhood watch WhatsApp group as we’ve had to take matters into our own hands because we don’t have the assistance,’ she said.

‘We’ve also organised private security because we do feel unsafe.’

Judd last week claimed the state government didn’t ‘seem to care’ about the ‘rapes, bashings and home invasions at the hands of the gangs in Bayside’. 

The footy WAG lives in the sprawling mansion in Brighton with her husband, retired AFL star Chris Judd, and their four children. 

Her home boasts a gym, a tennis court that can be turned into ‘a footy oval or cricket pitch’, and a magnesium salt pool. 

There is also a spacious wet bar complete with a snooker table and a bar.

‘I personally know two women who have experienced home invasions in Brighton in the last few weeks while they were at home,’ she wrote on Instagram last week. 

She reposted CCTV footage of a group of young men lurking outside properties in her affluent suburb and claimed it made her feel ‘unsafe’.

The teenagers, who were allegedly armed with knives, were filmed lurking outside several properties in the Bayside area before crashing a stolen BMW into a tree. 

Pali jumped to the defence of her fellow social media star and said the backlash Judd received for her comments was unfair.

‘I think it’s unfair that she has copped backlash, she’s just saying how we all feel and at the end of the day it’s easy to judge, but we are all living in fear,’ she said.

She said she received numerous messages from concerned residents, with one woman sending CCTV footage of three men loitering outside her home.

‘They attempted to get into our house for over two minutes! I woke up to this footage in the morning, now we have installed a full security system,’ the woman wrote. 

‘I have two young children at home! Would have been horrific if they got in.’ 

Another local man, Steve Wolf, claimed the ritzy suburbs had become ‘astronomically worse’ since he moved to Brighton in February 2019.

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Mr Wolf said in recent months his front gate was smashed, people with knives slashed a Liberal Party sign on his fence, and he’s been the victim of an attempted carjacking while driving his Ferrari.

‘I’m frightened to have my daughter over to stay with me — she’s only 11,’ he told Neil Mitchell on Melbourne radio station 3AW.

‘It has become unbelievably violent. I quite often go to Brazil and the violence here is astronomical, it would put Rio to shame.’

There is no police station in Brighton, and Mr Wolf said without a local station, there’s ‘no way they (police) can respond to incidences quickly’.

He said violence had become a ‘common situation’ in the area in recent times.

‘A couple of months ago I had my front gates bashed in by an individual, screaming and what have you. I got my personal security onto it, we sorted that out.

‘A few weeks ago… about 2am, I had my young daughter sleeping and about a dozen individuals came with knives, attacking and slashing… a (Liberal Party) sign on the front part of my fence.

‘I was debating whether to go out to confront them. I chose not to in case they came to attack my daughter,’ Mr Wolf said. 

But Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Sunday that he was ‘not interested in having an argument with Ms Judd’. 

‘I’m also obliged to point out though, I think there are more than 70 additional police in the Bayside area, and the most recent crime statistics released by an independent agency would not support those sweeping assessments about patterns of crime.’ 

‘I say this respectfully to Bec Judd, or anybody – I don’t want anybody to feel unsafe,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry she feels that way. The data would tell a different story, but it is about personal feelings and your sense of safety.’

Official data from Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency showed total criminal incidents in the Bayside Local Government Area were down 18.8 per cent from 2020 to 2021. 

In the Brighton part of Bayside, where the Judds and Mr Wolf live, there were 999 incidents in 2021, down from 1,153 in 2020. 

Judd said burglaries and break-ins made her feel ‘unsafe’, but statistics show such ‘criminal incidents’ in Bayside fell to their lowest level in 10 years in 2021.

Mr Wolf also recounted another incident on 3AW, saying ‘I was driving one of my sports cars, my Ferrari, down the street and some individuals came out.’

They attempted to carjack him. ‘One came out. I was ready for a violent confrontation.

‘Fortunately (the Ferrari) has a little bit more power than most cars and I managed to get away,’ he said. 

Mr Wolf added that ‘In my short stay, it’s astronomically worse. I get a lot of reports from people I’ve become friendly with in the area. 

‘There was a breaking and entering in my adjacent street, in my street there’s been quite a few.’ 

Liberal Brighton MP James Newbury has accused Mr Andrews of ‘victim blaming’ for dismissing Judd’s fears about crime in her area. 

‘It doesn’t matter who this woman is or what’s her postcode, when she raised the fact that she was scared because a home invasion occurred in her street, the Premier dismissed her and victim blamed her,’ Mr Newbury told The Herald Sun on Monday. 

‘It’s a deeply disturbing way for a premier to respond to a woman’s concern about her safety,’ he added. 

Mr Newbury had similar words for the Premier on Sunday, Tweeting: ‘How dare Daniel Andrews attack a woman because she feels unsafe – what a creep.’ 

‘This behaviour sounds a lot like victim blaming. There have been three home invasions in Brighton this week, a police shooting, and many more home invasions in local streets over recent months.’

The MP said he had heard of residents on Albert, Cochrane and other streets in Brighton forming neighbourhood watch WhatsApp groups.  

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