Australasian biker news

Gangster tells of killer regret
From:
May 16, 2006
THE gangster who drew bikie killer Russell Oldham into the criminal underworld yesterday told of his remorse over the suicide of his old friend and bodyguard.

"I put the first gun in his hand," underworld boss Phillip Player said.
Player told The Daily Telegraph he blamed himself for the events of the past month - Oldham assassinating Bandidos chief Rodney Monk and then, after three weeks on the run, shooting himself on Balmoral beach.

Oldham had dropped out of medical school and was working as a doorman around the clubs of Kings Cross when he met Player, the man who would change his life.

"I feel responsible that he chose the life he did," Player said.

"He was a nice guy who asked if he could work with me and I took him on as a protege. He hadn't used guns before. He liked the gangster lifestyle because he wanted so much to belong."

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Player - businessman, nightclub owner, former boxing promoter and criminal heavyweight - now runs a bar and restaurant in China and won't be at Oldham's funeral this week.
Oldham's father Michael said his son's service was for immediate family only, its time and place a secret for privacy and security reasons.

There are fears of retribution from Oldham's former bikie brothers.

Oldham, 39, was a probationary member of the Bandidos bikie gang.

Monk, 31, was vice-president of the Downtown chapter.

Mr Oldham, from Lancashire in the UK, said: "As far as we are concerned, Russell was a darling, darling boy. People who knew him and loved him know that's the case.

"The family wants to keep the funeral private. His mother is a mess and we just want closure."

Player said he was speaking out because Oldham's true friends wanted to put the record straight - he was no thug.

"He was a very intelligent, lovely bloke who lost his way over the years.

"He had loyalty and honour. If he was violent to people it was because they lived the same way we do - live by the sword, die by the sword.

"To everyone else he was generous. He had a handout for the down-and-outs and worried about street kids."

Player and Oldham worked together for three years in the early 1990s running nightclubs and as boxing promoters.

Oldham often acted as Player's bodyguard and was a doorman when Player opened Bonnie and Clyde's nightclub in Newtown, at which the staff dressed as gangsters and many of the patrons were the real thing.

They formed Merrick Player Group Ltd, using Oldham's middle name, with Chinese underworld figure Duncan Lam as a fellow director.

Player and Oldham parted company when Player moved to Darwin, pursued by National Crime Authority officers investigating connections to drug dealing and money laundering.

Oldham was released from jail in 2003 after serving five years for the manslaughter of two men and returned to the Bandidos, where he had been friends with Felix Lyle.

Lyle had been deposed as Downtown chapter president by Monk in 2002 and was thrown out of the club this year for "discrediting" the Bandido's colours.

Police believe a feud within the Bandidos was behind Monk's murder.

Funeral for slain bikie leader
By Katherine Danks

April 26, 2006
This article from : AAP
SLAIN Bandidos leader Rodney Monk will be buried in Sydney tomorrow, as investigations continue into his alleged killer's relationship with a parole officer.

Large numbers of mourners, including interstate and overseas bikies, are expected to attend the funeral for Monk, 32, who was gunned down in an East Sydney laneway last week.

Former Bandidos national sergeant-at-arms Russell Oldham, 39, is the chief suspect in the murder, which police believe was sparked by a power struggle within the gang.

Detectives attached to Strike Force Coombah, established to investigate the murder, are still searching for the bikie.

Hundreds of bikies are expected to attend the Carlingford funeral service, and observe a funeral tradition known by bikie gangs worldwide as "tipping the hat".

The mark of respect involves riding without helmets behind the hearse during the funeral procession.

Police will have a strong presence at the church, and a marked police car is expected to precede the cortege.

NSW Police and the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) said they had not received an application for the bikies to ride without their helmets.

Monk and Oldham were reportedly arguing shortly before the shooting over the decision to expel the latter from the local chapter.

Oldham had reportedly broken club rules by having an affair with a female parole officer.

A NSW Department of Corrective Services (DCS) spokesman today said a parole officer had resigned amid an internal investigation into her involvement with Oldham.

"She is a parole officer, she has submitted her resignation, which I understand has not been accepted at this stage," the spokesman said.

"She was not the direct supervising parole officer for Robert Oldham."

Oldham was released from jail in November 2004 after serving six years of a ten-year jail term for the manslaughter of two men in Bankstown in 1998.

His parole is due to expire in November 2008.

The Bandidos achieved notoriety on Father's Day 1984 in a shoot-out with rival gang the Comancheros at Milperra in south-western Sydney.

Seven people, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed in the car park of the Viking Tavern.

An investigation into the massacre revealed the Comancheros were angered that some of their members had defected to form the Bandidos in August 1983.