Above the Law by Ross Coulthart

Author:Ross Coulthart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781742695440
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2011-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

As befitting the senior management of any major international business, gang leaders and key colleagues often visited Australia, and similarly their Australian compatriots travelled to them.The ostensible reason was usually attendance at a world run or motorcycle event. In 1991, in what was a rare feat of cooperation between law-enforcement officials, 19 Hells Angels from North America were denied Australian visas necessary to attend the Hells Angels World Run in Adelaide. The travel plans of the aspiring visitors, quite a few of whom had careers which included significant brushes with the law, had come to the attention of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police biker expert. He, in turn, had contacted a police officer of similar interests in Australia, who broke through bureaucratic barriers. The result was 19 unhappy Angels without visas.

In 1992, Pete Gordon Price, the sergeant-at-arms of a Bandido chapter in Washington State, decided to visit Australia. Pete was either stupid, naïve or arrogant, or a dangerous combination of all three. He was also 190 kilograms, 185 centimetres tall, and thought that his usual Bandidos mode of dress was suitable for sightseeing down under.

At the time of Pete’s visit, Sydney’s red-light district, Kings Cross, had yet to experience the regeneration of its past bohemian atmosphere that has seen the character of the district change over the last decade. When Pete took to the streets of the Cross, accompanied by his host, Australian Bandido Grant Evers, heroin was the drug of choice, and street prostitution, strip clubs, late-night boozers and petty crime were common. Nightclub security was dominated by the bike gangs, and in particular the Bandidos. Ecstasy was the partygoer’s favourite, and the Bandidos could guarantee supply.

The Cross wasn’t the most stylish part of Sydney, but even then Pete managed to stand out from the crowd. As his lawyer would later point out, in his Bandido club outfit and with his noticeable dimensions, Pete ‘would have attracted anyone’s attention’. Among those whose interest was piqued were members of the NSW police force, who, not surprisingly, had a significant presence in the locality. It was a fair bet that in the middle of a hot Sydney summer, a gentleman who looked like Pete, wearing a full leather jacket, might just be concealing something more than a rapier-like wit and a certain boyish charm. And so when they stopped Pete and Grant for a quick chat, they found that under his leather jacket Pete was wearing a bullet-proof vest, and was carrying a .32-calibre pistol. In a country with only minimal gun-related crime, they were unusual additions to the foreign traveller’s staple of guidebook and camera. Police added some handcuffs to Pete’s ensemble, and offered him a tour of the local police station.

Outlaw bikers have a long tradition of enjoying the advice of prominent legal counsel, and the local Bandidos were no different. Pete soon found himself represented by the high-profile lawyer Chris Murphy. In court, Mr Murphy persuaded the presiding magistrate that Pete, a Vietnam veteran, had been licensed to carry firearms since the age of 12, and had no criminal record.

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