THE FORMER Sergeant-at-Arms of the Rebels’ Newcastle chapter has failed to reduce his eight-year sentenced for a brutal bashing of a club nominee and extortion.
Julian Fletcher Ivory was sentenced in 2011 to eight years and nine months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years and three months after he pleaded guilty to taking part in the bashing of a man who was in his ‘‘hang about’’ phase with the bikie gang, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal recently heard.
The prospect had been called to the club’s then headquarters in Throsby Street, Wickham, in May 2010 before he and a carload of members drove to Minmi cemetery.
Ivory told the victim to ‘‘stand beside me and look staunch’’ before using an implement to hit the victim’s legs, causing him to fall.
Other members then set upon the victim with baseball bats before the victim lost consciousness.
The victim suffered numerous injuries including facial fractures.
Just days before, Ivory and then president Darren Delaney had visited a Raymond Terrace tattooist where they threatened to ‘‘run you out of town’’ or firebomb the shop if the victim did not pay protection.
Ivory was involved in two meetings with the tattooist, one at the victim’s shop and the other at Heatherbrae McDonald’s, where it was agreed that the tattooist could stay in business if he paid $200 to the Rebels each week.
While Ivory was jailed for almost nine years, Delaney only received a little over two years for his involvement in the extortion and a minor role in the bashing while young club member Joshua Mark Wilson received community service for being ready and able to assist.
Ivory tried to lodge an appeal against the severity of his sentence not long after he was jailed, but Legal Aid refused to make the application because it had little prospect of success.
In dismissing the appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeal noted that Wilson and Delaney were charged with different offences and were sentenced based on different facts compared with Ivory.
Ivory will be eligible for parole next August.