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UNDERWORLD figure Lewis Moran cowered in a corner as a masked gunman shot him, a jury has heard.

As the trial that stopped Victorians watching the Underbelly TV series began in the Supreme Court yesterday, jurors viewed security video of Moran`s final moments before he was shot and killed in the Brunswick Club in Melbourne four years ago.

The black and white video shows two gunmen wearing balaclavas entering the club and one armed with a shotgun chasing Moran, who tried to escape past a row of poker machines only to be trapped.

As Moran cowered in a corner, his attacker, having dispensed with the shotgun, shot him with a large-calibre pistol.

As Moran slumped to the floor, his attacker leaned forward and fired another shot.

Evangelos Goussis, 40, has pleaded not guilty to Moran`s murder and to the attempted murder of Herbert Wrout, who was shot by the second gunman but survived.

Several people gasped as the video was played to the court, including Moran`s widow, Judy.

But the jury was warned not to allow the graphic video, or their prejudices about the people involved in Melbourne`s gangland war, to influence them and to judge the case only on the evidence.

In his opening address, Mr Tinney told the jurors they would enter a world vastly different from their own as the trial progressed.

"It is a world of gangland intrigue and violence," he told them.

Mr Tinney said that criminal identities Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel had wanted Moran, 58, dead and they got their wish after offering a $150,000 contract on his life.

"In Victoria at that time there were men around who were willing to do the bidding of the likes of Carl Williams . . . for money . . . or simply because they were asked to do it by such a powerful individual," he said.

Mr Tinney said that a career criminal, who could not be named for legal reasons, was the getaway driver and his evidence would be central to the trial.

He said the criminal would say that he and Mr Goussis and another man, accepted the contract to kill Moran and did surveillance on the Brunswick Club in Sydney Rd in the days before the killing.

Mr Tinney said Moran was a sitting duck because he always attended the club around the same time and sat in the same spot.

On the day of the shooting, he said, the criminal drove the two shooters to the hotel and parked in a lane.

He said the pair donned balaclavas and walked inside the hotel.

Moran saw them enter and as one gunman stood at the door Mr Goussis allegedly - wearing a long dark coat and brandishing a shotgun - chased him through another room before Moran bumped "slap bang" into bar manager Sandra Sugars.

The witness said he was told Mokbel and Williams would pay half each, and after the shooting Williams rang saying, "Good one mate, you have 150,000 reasons to smile".

The witness later met Mokbel, who paid him his fee - but was $10,000 short.

Defence barrister Stephen Shirrefs, SC, said the star witness was known for making up stories, was not credible and had falsely implicated his client.

The trial before Justice Betty King is continuing.

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