WA: Cracks revealed in police war with bikies

AAP General News (Australia)
08-10-2009
WA: Cracks revealed in police war with bikies

(Eds: Embargoed until 0001 AEST Monday, August 10)



By Aleisha Preedy

PERTH, Aug 10 AAP - A cloud of doubt hangs over a conviction for a bikie-related killing,
with fresh evidence revealing police could have been conned by a murderer and put away
the wrong man.

A police-brokered deal with a member of the Gypsy Jokers and flawed forensic evidence
into the murder of 35-year-old Anthony David Tapley have been uncovered in an investigation
by the ABC's Four Corners program.

The investigation questions whether police have the upper hand in the bikie wars following
a deadly brawl at Sydney Airport in March and a recent shooting in the Perth suburb of
Jandakot.

It claims Gary Ernest White, an associate of the West Australian-based Gypsy Jokers,
was wrongly convicted of Mr Tapley's murder in 2001, on the testimony of former club member
Sid "Snot" Reid.

Reid admitted his part in the car-bomb killing of former WA detective Don Hancock and
his friend Lou Lewis at Ora Banda in September 2001.

Police promised a reduced sentence if Reid broke the bikies' code of silence and testified
against his bikie mates in court.

He agreed and in 2003 White was sentenced to life in prison for shooting Mr Tapley
three times over a drug debt before incinerating his body.

The program, to be aired on Monday, says although a jury did not believe Reid's testimony
in the Hancock case, his evidence helped convict White of Mr Tapley's murder.

Independent forensic scientists have re-examined evidence and concluded it did not
support the crown case that White, now 55, killed Mr Tapley.

The investigation questions whether police were fooled by Reid in their haste to jail
a murderer in honour of their former colleague Mr Hancock.

The West Australian Supreme Court of Appeal rejected White's application to appeal
against his murder conviction in 2006.

Calls for national anti-bikie laws intensified after the airport brawl involving members
of the Comancheros and Hells Angels, in which 29-year-old Anthony Zervas died.

South Australia and NSW have enacted laws that allow bikie gangs to be declared criminal
organisations, while other states are implementing similar measures.

In NSW a police operation, codenamed Strike Force Raptor, has been set up to stem illegal
bikie activity.

In WA, meanwhile, four men face court charges over shootings at a property south of
Perth in which four people were injured, including former Gypsy Joker president Lennard
(Lennard) Mark Kirby.

AAP ap/jhp/mn

KEYWORD: BIKIES CORNERS (EMBARGOED)

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