Australasian biker news

 

AUSTRALASIAN BIKER NEWS

 


 

Cops 'should have warned' bikie victim
From: AAP By Rebecca Keenan
December 19, 2005
 
THE son of a man murdered alongside a former high-profile policeman in a bikie-gang car bombing wants to know why West Australian Police did not warn his father he was at risk.
 
Lawrence "Lou" Lewis and ex-detective Don Hancock were killed in September 2001, with one member of the Gypsy Joker gang convicted over the bombing.
It was retribution for the death of bikie gang member Billy Grierson, who was shot sniper-style more than five years ago in the WA goldfields town of Ora Banda.
 
Mr Hancock, who retired to Ora Banda to run the town's historic inn, was the prime suspect in the shooting.
 
Mr Lewis' son Bradley today gave evidence to a coronial inquest into the deaths of Mr Grierson, Mr Hancock and Mr Lewis.
 
Mr Hancock and Mr Lewis were long-time friends and regularly attended race meets together and shared family barbecues, he said.
 

Advertisement:
He said his father had realised Mr Hancock was under threat but didn't consider himself a target for the Gypsy Jokers.
"Perhaps if he had been warned by the police he would have heeded it," Bradley Lewis said.
 
Mr Lewis also wanted to know how the Gypsy Jokers obtained personal information about his father from a government department.
 
Detective sergeant Brian Cross was in charge of assessing the risk posed to Mr Hancock in a police operation called Operation Deeds and rated Mr Hancock as "major risk".
 
He said Mr Lewis and other associates were not considered to be at threat.
 
During the operation, Detective Sergeant Cross understood the Gypsy Joker gang wanted to kill either Mr Hancock, his son Steven, or his wife, Elizabeth.
 
"There was no intelligence to lead me to believe there was a threat to any other person outside the Hancock family," Detective sergeant Cross told the Perth Coroner's Court.
 
Police intelligence suggested Mr Hancock was likely to be attacked with baseball bats and urged him to travel with other people to reduce this risk.
 
The inquest continues.
 
 

Back

HOME

 

 

 

 

Hit Counter