Alleged Mongols bikie boss Nicholas Forbes to be retried over nightclub brawl between Finks, Hells Angels
Updated
The man believed to be the Queensland president of the Mongols bikie gang will be retried in South Australia over his role in a nightclub brawl when he was a member of the Finks gang.
Nicholas Forbes was captured on security video swinging punches against Hells Angels members inside The City Nightclub in Adelaide's Hindley Street in May 2011.
He was also seen pulling someone to the floor and hitting another with a bar stool, before running out of the club with other Finks members just before 5:00am.
Police charged him with aggravated affray but he was found not guilty by the SA Magistrates Court earlier this year.
Prosecutors earlier alleged he was "in the forefront" of the attack on the Hells Angels, which was in retaliation for an earlier fight involving members of both gangs outside The Firm club on North Terrace.
But Magistrate Stefan Metanomski acquitted him, even though he conceded Forbes did have a case to answer.
Mr Metanomski ruled the prosecution's evidence was "so deficient or unreliable as to render it inappropriate for the case to continue".
He said while there was no doubt about Forbes' actions, he could have been acting in self-defence.
"[The prosecution] has therefore not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the violence he used was unlawful," Mr Metanomski said.
"There is no evidence that he was involved in any plan to attend the City Nightclub for purposes of retribution against the Hells Angels.
"In short, the prosecution case is based on speculation and inference."
But prosecutors appealed the decision and Supreme Court judge Kevin Duggan ruled, in findings handed down today, the magistrate erred "in finding that there were deficiencies in the prosecution evidence such as to justify the acquittal of the respondent".
"The orders of the magistrate are set aside and the matter is remitted for retrial before another magistrate."
Several other bikies who were involved in the brawl have since been sentenced.
Forbes was arrested this week along with 50 other people during drug raids in south-east and Central Queensland.