Brawl started to get police help, court told

Leah Fineran   |  September 30th, 2013

 A MAN sparked a brawl outside a Gold Coast restaurant so police would realise his life was being threatened by up to 60 bikie gang members, a court has heard.

Jason Trouchet, 39, and associate Matthew Sward, 25, appeared in Southport Magistrate’s Court today charged with affray after the weekend brawl with several members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang.

They both applied for and were granted bail - Trouchet on condition he return to his home in the Northern Territory and stay away from the Gold Coast.

Trouchet was also ordered not to contact Sward or to ‘threaten or harass’ Bandidos bikies or any prosecution witnesses.

Sward was bailed on conditions including a ban from Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise.

After being released from the Southport watch-house, Trouchet boasted that he and Sward had ‘outnumbered’ the 60 Bandidos bikies who confronted them.

“Do you see a mark on my face?” he said. “They were outnumbered.”

Trouchet said he had ‘no idea mate’ why the Bandidos had picked on him but it was a ‘very cowardly’ attack and he had no choice but to retaliate.

“Just put yourself in my position, that’s all I’ll say,” he said. “(We were just) two diners having a quiet feed.”

He also said he had deliberately taken the fight outside because he did not want other diners caught up in the violence.

“Mate I feel very sorry for them (the public),” he said.

He said he would now reluctantly leave the Gold Coast and return to the Northern Territory to comply with his bail conditions.

“It’s as clear as day I’m not a member of any motorcycle club, nor ever have been,” he added.

Trouchet’s lawyer Jason Jacobson earlier told the court his client started the brawl in a bid to attract police attention after he was threatened by up to 60 members of the bikie gang.

Mr Jacobson said Trouchet had been told “this is it’’ by the lead member of 20 Bandidos who surrounded him while he dined at Aura Restaurant at Broadbeach.

After saying, “Really? Not in the restaurant, let’s take it outside’’, Trouchet panicked when he saw a group of about 40 Bandidos waiting outside.

“It put him in a very precarious situation,’’ Mr Jacobson said.

The court was told Trouchet feared he would would be led ‘down a dark alley’ and ‘end up in a wheelchair or a coffin’.

He said the Bandidos entered the Aura restaurant and had a heated conversation with Trouchet and Sward.

A fight erupted and spilled outside onto the footpath, forcing people including families with children to cower in terror.

Trouchet also was acting out out of concern for the public, his lawyer said.

He told the court his client is not, nor has he ever been, a member of a motorcycle gang.

He said the matter was a personal one between his client and one of his assailants, and was not a gang feud.

The court heard that Jacques Teamo, who was shot at a Gold Coast shopping centre last year, instigated Friday night’s wild brawl.

The court heard Jacques Teamo sparked the brawl in front of terrified diners when he walked into a Broadbeach restaurant with a ‘lynch mob’ of gang members.

The two accused appeared amid heavy security, with uniformed and plain-clothes police massing at the courthouse.

Opposing bail, police prosecutor Senior-Constable Nick Wang told the court Broadbeach was packed with school holiday crowds, including families, when the brawl broke out.

Sen-Const Wang said about 60 Bandidos bikies wearing gang colours entered the precinct ‘intimidating members of the public by their sheer presence’.

“There were parents with prams . ... and they had to take shelter behind vehicles and trees,” he said.

Sen-Const Wang said Trouchet needed to be kept behind bars for his own protection and that of the public.

Defence lawyer Jacobson said Trouchet was dining with Sward when Teamo - who was shot by an alleged Finks rival at Robina Town Centre last year in an incident in which a female shopper was also wounded - walked in with a group of 20 Bandidos and said: “This is it.”

When magistrate Ron Kilner suggested Trouchet should have called police or fled the restaurant through the back door, Mr Jacobson replied his client was surrounded.

“There were knives and forks on the table and there’s people threatening to kill him,” Mr Jacobson told the court.

“They (Trouchet and Sward) really faced a lynch mob at the time.”

 

11.30am: Two Finks associates charged with affray over the weekend Broadbeach brawl have been granted bail but one has been banned from the Gold Coast.

Jason Trouchet 39, and Matthew Sward, 25, will be released from the Southport Watchhouse later today.

The pair are charged with affray after a confrontation with Bandidos bikie members at the Aura restaurant on Surf Parade around 8.30pm on Friday night.

Magistrate Ron Kilner refused a police objection to bail which suggested the men should remain behind bars for the own protection and the safety of the community.

He granted them bail with conditions that they have no contact with each other, members of the Bandidos or prosecution witnesses.

He further banned Sward from the Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach entertainment precincts and banned Trouchet, a Northern Territory landscaper, from remaining on the Gold Coast.
 

10am: Solicitor Jason Jacobson said Trouchet is not a member of the Finks or any other club, merely an associate.

He said his client is a Darwin landscaper who was confronted by known a Bandido who threatened in the restaurant to kill him.

He said Trouchet moved the confrontation out of the restaurant to protect restaurant patrons but faced a 60 angry bikies outside.

"It was a lynch mob," he said.

"He found himself in a very confronting situation...he did something to stop himself being taken away."

EARLIER: A HIGH-RANKING Finks outlaw motorcycle member has faced court charged with throwing the first punch in a violent Broadbeach brawl with rival Bandidos members on Friday night.

Jason Trouchet, 39, from Surfers Paradise and associate Matthew Sward, 25, from Broadbeach appeared handcuffed in the Southport Magistrates Court prisoner's dock  this morning charged with affray.

Police alleged the men were dining in the Aura tapas restaurant in Broadbeach's busy restaurant district when they were confronted by Bandidos around 8.30pm.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Nick Wang alleged Trouchet followed the men out of the restaurant and threw the first punch while Sward took a flying leap onto other Bandidos and a fight ensued.

The men were among 18 bikies arrested and seven people, including police, injured when scores of vest-clad bikies swarmed Broadbeach.

Many Bandidos then travelled en masse to the Southport Watchhouse where they were confronted police armed with batons and Tasers when they called for their members to be released.

Snr Const Wang has opposed a bail application by solicitor Jason Jacobson for Trouchet and Sward.

The police prosecutor said the men should remain behind bars for their own safety and for the safety of the community.

The bail application has been stood down temporarily to set up video equipment to show CCTV footage of the alleged incident.