Vengeance in gangland

14.10.2004


If Highway 61 gang boss Kevin Weavers had miraculously survived the 22cm knife wound that took his life, police have little doubt that he would have exacted a terrible revenge.

"The cycle of retribution would have continued ... I think it was inevitable that this sort of thing would eventually result in death," said Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Gutry, who headed the homicide inquiry.

Weavers, the 43-year-old national president of the Highway 61 Motorcycle Club, died in the gang's headquarters in Holmes Rd, Manurewa from blood loss after being stabbed in the thigh. His femoral artery was cut in two places.

Police and the Crown say he was killed by members of his own band of brothers, people he should have been able to trust.

Three men were charged with his murder - the former president of the now disbanded Otahuhu Highway 61 chapter, Kelly Raymond Robertson, 46, gang life member Michael Douglas Gould and Michael William Brittain, 44, a close associate of the gang who helped build the club headquarters.

At the trial, prosecutors said Brittain instigated the killing.

On Tuesday Robertson was found guilty of manslaughter. Gould and Brittain were found not guilty and walked free.

Over three weeks during the trial at the High Court in Auckland, jurors saw into the closed world of gangland life through the testimony of witnesses who were mostly reluctant to be in court or to be seen to be in any way co-operating with the authorities.

What emerged was a picture of gang justice, an escalating cycle of assaults as punishment, followed by reprisal, retribution and revenge.

Weavers, the elected national president, was depicted as a strong leader, someone who would cut off his right arm before taking a backwards step.

The sequence of recrimination, payback and retaliation that led to his death started with two friends of Weavers, Gary and Denise Turner, being invited to dinner with Brittain and his partner, Sue Hale, at their Papakura home in September last year.

Before dinner started, a man named Harley Edmondson, a member of the 45 Outlaw Motorcycle gang, arrived demanding money from the Turners for an alleged debt.

Turner was assaulted and the couple left, blaming Brittain for setting them up.

Instead of going to the police - no one connected with gangs complains to the police - the Turners went to see their friend, Weavers, who decided to mete out his own brand of justice.

Twenty minutes later, Weavers arrived with three or four other men armed with hammers and delivered a merciless pounding to Brittain.

His arm was broken as he tried to protect himself from the rain of hammer blows, his skull was indented and he had a 15cm knife wound in his leg.

Brittain was also "taxed" by Weavers, who took his new Harley-Davidson motorcycle, his car and tools and Sue Hale's wage packet.

After four days, Brittain discharged himself from hospital. But during his time there he told "anyone who would listen", as prosecutor Brian Dickey put it, that he was going to kill the person who put him there.

Brittain took his case to Robertson, a former president of the Otahuhu chapter.

Brittain's lawyer, Chris Comeskey, insisted in court that Brittain did not recruit Robertson to harm Weavers, merely to use his diplomatic skills to persuade him to give the motorcycle back.

Defence witnesses maintained that Robertson and Weavers had a mutual respect for each other. Others say the two had a simmering history and detested each another.

As national president, Weavers disbanded Robertson's Otahuhu chapter after the execution-style killing of Nomad gangster Malcolm Munns in 1997 by a Highway 61 man.

Prosecutor Dickey said the incident brought unwanted police attention to gang activities, prompting the disbanding.

But Robertson insisted it was merely an "amalgamation" of two chapters.

Though he had been stripped of power, Robertson still had influence among members and camp followers and loyalties were said to be divided.

Robertson, who has a farm in Brookby and other property, held court at his Takinini car yard where people came to him with "issues".

He maintained in court that he went to see Weavers as a "peacemaker," trying to get Brittain's Harley-Davidson back.

As Brittain, his arm in plaster, head swathed in bandages and on a crutch waited in a vehicle outside, Robertson and Gould went into the fortified headquarters after being admitted by a sentry guarding the gate. This was two hours after Brittain left hospital.

Robertson said that while Gould was elsewhere in the building looking for motorcycle parts, Weavers with "demons in his eye" suddenly attacked him with a double-bladed knife.

His rage was prompted, Robertson said, by a suggestion that he had advised Brittain to go to the police about the assault and the taking of his motorcycle.

Despite being weakened by throat cancer, he managed to overpower Weavers, who accidentally stabbed himself in the thigh and fell, pushing the weapon deep into the leg.

Robertson accepted in cross-examination from Dickey that the suggestion of "narking" to the police was taboo and bound to infuriate any self-respecting gang member. He also accepted that, if his story were true, his efforts as "an emissary of peace" were conspicuously unsuccessful.

No knife was found at the scene. The Crown said that either Robertson or Gould took it when they left. Gould, excitable and testy, claimed in court that there was a conspiracy and the police had the knife.

In a moment of low comedy, Gould expressed his outrage at the tone of the prosecutor's questioning.

"Are you accusing me of murder?" he demanded.

Dickey: "Well, yes."

When Dickey accused him of disloyalty and of rendering no assistance to his leader, an injured and dying brother, Gould erupted, calling Dickey a filthy, low-life maggot whose eyes were too close together.

One veteran bikie told the trial that Robertson - who was sentenced to three years jail in 1999 for conspiracy to supply methamphetamine - had great diplomatic skills and had on many occasions "walked into the face of adversity and quelled wars".

There was also testimony about the strong affection bikers had for their machines.

On the anniversary of Weavers' death, September 27, a cavalcade of gang members rode around the courthouse.

Defence witnesses maintained that Weavers was violent and unpredictable, partly to keep people on edge and partly because of his use of drugs.

He was involved in vehicle repossession and finance through what Chris Comeskey called "the Weavers Bank".

Whether he needed to be avoided, depended on whether you were friend or foe. He was said to be a good father and loyal to friends and family.

If crossed, or if his friends were crossed, there would be repercussions.

And if Weavers had survived?

Gutry said that there was no doubt that the cycle of payback would have carried on.

"If he had survived, I imaging there would have been no complaint to the police and the violence and retribution would have continued.

"It would have caused further tensions within the gang and I think it was inevitable that this sort of violence would eventually result in death, as it did."

The former head of the organised crime squad, Sergeant Darryl Brazier, agreed.

"I don't know how far Weavers would have taken it, but there would certainly have been a price to pay, and Kelly knew it."

Brazier said that Weavers had a "fearsome" reputation as someone who could handle himself and someone "not to be messed with."

He said that none of those involved would ever consider involving the police, preferring to "take care of business" in their own way.

During the investigation the police received many calls from people who asked why they were bothering about the death of a gangster.

"But that is not the point," Gutry said. "We would always investigate, despite a person being a gang president."

"They still have family and they have people who care about them."

Before the trial Robertson is said to have withdrawn $100,000 from one of his bank accounts.

Police say they have heard rumours that he paid a "penance" of money and cars to the Auckland chapter over the incident.

It is understood that members of other chapters were not happy with the arrangement.

As a leader, Robertson got on well with top men of the Headhunters and Black Power gangs. They had gone from battling each other years ago to co-operating in the lucrative drug trade.

When Weavers took over, Robertson did not like the way things were run and quit the gang.

From then on, there was said to be bad blood between the two.
 

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