Drizzt
Member
Illegal guns in photo shoot
By Steve Butcher
May 9, 2005
When the Victoria Police special operations group raided the Hastings clubhouse of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, they found an arsenal of illegal weapons, including a sawn-off shotgun, two .45-calibre automatic handguns and multiple rounds of unsecured ammunition.
Present in the clubhouse in the 5.30am raid were then club president Brendan Wayne Petersen and his girlfriend.
What ensured that Petersen and other club members had seriously shot themselves in the foot was a series of incriminating photographs of them brandishing weapons, including a heavily armed group pictured for the Outlaws Christmas card mail-out.
One showed Petersen and colleague Shane Jolly pointing automatic handguns at each other's heads.
When Petersen appeared in court on Friday to face assault and firearms charges, his barrister James Montgomery argued that the digital photographs showed boys being silly in the clubhouse.
Magistrate Duncan Reynolds, who heard how Peterson injured four men in unprovoked attacks between August 2002, and September 2003, jailed him for 18 months.
Mr Reynolds, who ordered Petersen to serve a minimum of six months, described the assaults as cowardly and Petersen's attitude to firearms laws as cavalier.
Petersen, of Kareela Drive, Tootgarook, was released pending an appeal.
Jack Vandersteen, prosecuting, said Petersen assaulted a man in a Baxter tavern and others punched and kicked him, while in another attack in Tyabb he assaulted a pedestrian who gestured at a car he was travelling in.
On August 1, 2003, Petersen and others assaulted a naval petty officer in Somerville and later he and fellow Outlaws surrounded a man in the Rosebud Hotel and punched and kicked him to the ground.
Mr Vandersteen said all of the firearms, including the two loaded .45-calibre handguns that were found under Petersen's bed, were unregistered.
Mr Montgomery said Petersen, who pleaded guilty to four charges of intentionally causing injury and four firearms offences, had never been seen with the weapons outside the clubhouse.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/Natio...t/2005/05/08/1115491042382.html?oneclick=true
By Steve Butcher
May 9, 2005
When the Victoria Police special operations group raided the Hastings clubhouse of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, they found an arsenal of illegal weapons, including a sawn-off shotgun, two .45-calibre automatic handguns and multiple rounds of unsecured ammunition.
Present in the clubhouse in the 5.30am raid were then club president Brendan Wayne Petersen and his girlfriend.
What ensured that Petersen and other club members had seriously shot themselves in the foot was a series of incriminating photographs of them brandishing weapons, including a heavily armed group pictured for the Outlaws Christmas card mail-out.
One showed Petersen and colleague Shane Jolly pointing automatic handguns at each other's heads.
When Petersen appeared in court on Friday to face assault and firearms charges, his barrister James Montgomery argued that the digital photographs showed boys being silly in the clubhouse.
Magistrate Duncan Reynolds, who heard how Peterson injured four men in unprovoked attacks between August 2002, and September 2003, jailed him for 18 months.
Mr Reynolds, who ordered Petersen to serve a minimum of six months, described the assaults as cowardly and Petersen's attitude to firearms laws as cavalier.
Petersen, of Kareela Drive, Tootgarook, was released pending an appeal.
Jack Vandersteen, prosecuting, said Petersen assaulted a man in a Baxter tavern and others punched and kicked him, while in another attack in Tyabb he assaulted a pedestrian who gestured at a car he was travelling in.
On August 1, 2003, Petersen and others assaulted a naval petty officer in Somerville and later he and fellow Outlaws surrounded a man in the Rosebud Hotel and punched and kicked him to the ground.
Mr Vandersteen said all of the firearms, including the two loaded .45-calibre handguns that were found under Petersen's bed, were unregistered.
Mr Montgomery said Petersen, who pleaded guilty to four charges of intentionally causing injury and four firearms offences, had never been seen with the weapons outside the clubhouse.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/Natio...t/2005/05/08/1115491042382.html?oneclick=true
