Speaker 1: The public has had a long held fascination with detectives.
Speaker 1: Detective see a side of life the average person is
Speaker 1: never exposed to. I spent thirty four years as a cop.
Speaker 1: For twenty five of those years I was catching killers.
Speaker 1: That's what I did for a living. I was a
Speaker 1: homicide detective. I'm no longer just interviewing bad guys. Instead,
Speaker 1: I'm taking the public into the world in which I operated.
Speaker 1: The guests I talk to each week have amazing stories
Speaker 1: from all sides of the law. The interviews are raw
Speaker 1: and honest, just like the people I talk to. Some
Speaker 1: of the content and language might be confronting. That's because
Speaker 1: no one who comes into contact with crime is left unchanged.
Speaker 1: Join me now as I take you into this world. Today,
Speaker 1: I spoke the Shannon Old House. Shannon has a history
Speaker 1: of violence. Does that make him a bad man? You
Speaker 1: can form your own views after listening to our chat.
Speaker 1: We talked about a lot of heavy personal stuff, growing
Speaker 1: up as an indigenous youth in the Northern Territory, the
Speaker 1: impact of being a survivor of child sexual abuse, family violence,
Speaker 1: drug addiction, his own acts of violence, including a vicious
Speaker 1: prison assault, and his time as a sergeant of arms
Speaker 1: of an outlaw motorcycle gang. But what I found most
Speaker 1: interesting about Shannon is what he's doing now and how
Speaker 1: he's turned his life around. Mate, you're a scary looking dude.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at your face tattoos, neck tatoos. It's you
Speaker 1: got it written all over you don't mess with me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well that's what I get from a lot
Speaker 2: of people. Yeah, definitely, definitely that only you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's have been like that for years, you know, but yeah,
Speaker 2: it's you know, my story is my life? Really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's ago with the tattoos? When did you start
Speaker 1: getting them?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's funny like story about We're not
Speaker 2: really funny about it. I started getting them when I
Speaker 2: got addicted to Metham Fatamin, you know, like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I never had any face tattoos, head tatoos or anything
Speaker 2: until I started using heavy drugs. And then yeah, once
Speaker 2: I started using heavy drugs, I was just like, I
Speaker 2: want this face tattoo, I want that head tattoo.
Speaker 1: And yeah, oh yeah, I'm true.
Speaker 2: This is a true story. I'm not even lying about this.
Speaker 2: I woke up in prison, and once I actually sobered
Speaker 2: up in prison, I really sobered up. I did look
Speaker 2: in the mirror and I was thinking, Wow, it's like,
Speaker 2: what happened?
Speaker 1: What have I done?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. Oh yeah, I was shocked.
Speaker 2: I was shocked myself.
Speaker 1: Trust me, Well, you can't. You can't avoid it. Every
Speaker 1: time you're look in the mirror, it's there, and I
Speaker 1: would imagine people react differently to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's you definitely see the different groups of people.
Speaker 2: When I'm walking through the streets. You see obviously people
Speaker 2: that are hard out, gang life style. Top of people
Speaker 2: I bore me and like suss me out and try,
Speaker 2: especially because if they're from that area and I'm not
Speaker 2: try I figure out who I am. But it's like
Speaker 2: I've had like elderly and the kids and all that,
Speaker 2: like it's weird, Like they love on me. They always
Speaker 2: intrigued and like nice fate, nice statues. Where did that hurt?
Speaker 2: Did this herd? What's even the kids? You know, like yeah,
Speaker 2: it's too it's funny. And you get all the people
Speaker 2: who obviously got something or done something bad and stuff
Speaker 2: like that that got enemies. You know, they look at
Speaker 2: me like, you know, like.
Speaker 1: You're in the area for Yeah, yeah, No, I would
Speaker 1: imagine that change people's perspective. But I'm obviously not a psychologist,
Speaker 1: but it looks like there's a lot of anger and torment.
Speaker 1: There is that part of it, Like what was the
Speaker 1: basis of it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Is really to be honest, it's the pain, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean like it's when I got the first one,
Speaker 2: I kind of got addicted to that, like that feeling,
Speaker 2: you know, that sense of being able to go through
Speaker 2: all that pain and stuff like that and just lay
Speaker 2: there and I enjoyed it, you know, so I just
Speaker 2: kept getting more and more and more. Yeah, before I
Speaker 2: knew it, and it.
Speaker 1: Was it was at a time you were getting it
Speaker 1: was a commitment to your lifetime lifestyle. You never thought
Speaker 1: you were going to turn it around. What was Yeah,
Speaker 1: any social aspect of it, it's almost a rebellious that, yeah,
Speaker 1: aspect of it going well, okay, this is the way
Speaker 1: I write what are you going to do about?
Speaker 2: Yeah? That's pretty much exactly how it was.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I was part of a club, you know, so part
Speaker 2: of the gang life, and I wanted to show it,
Speaker 2: you know, so I've got all the face hats and
Speaker 2: all that, and just to prove you know, especially through
Speaker 2: the interior wherever I was that you know, I wasn't
Speaker 2: afraid of the life I was living, or you know,
Speaker 2: afraid of the people who were hated on me or
Speaker 2: or what I was doing, or you know, with the
Speaker 2: people that I was hanging around. You know.
Speaker 1: So well, it's a podcast, so the people listening can't
Speaker 1: see but the full face tattoos and neck tattoos. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that leaves an impact. Let's say. Yeah, now we got
Speaker 1: together because of a mutual mate, Jeffrey Morgan. Jeff's been
Speaker 1: on the podcast. He had his life, went off rails
Speaker 1: at a hard start in life and spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time inside, but he's really turned his life around.
Speaker 1: How did you to connect cause I think it's a
Speaker 1: great connection. I've got a lot of respect for Jeff
Speaker 1: and what he's doing. Now, how did you to meet up?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was Yeah, it was exactly that's exactly right,
Speaker 2: you know. And so I just finished doing a bit
Speaker 2: of a bit of a lag, you know, seven years
Speaker 2: in Northern Territory. So when I got released, like or
Speaker 2: while I was still in there, you know, I thought
Speaker 2: I need to change my life. You know, this is
Speaker 2: this is this is not the way they live. You know,
Speaker 2: it's too you know, it's like he wants to live
Speaker 2: this life. You know, he wants to be worried about
Speaker 2: who's coming after you, who's going to get your or
Speaker 2: you know. I just saw the dramas and that they
Speaker 2: come with that, you know, like just just really got
Speaker 2: to me in in so I thought I practiced and
Speaker 2: trained and taught myself inside of prison how not to
Speaker 2: let that stuff bother me for reading and stuff, you know. So,
Speaker 2: and then when I got released, I started doing like
Speaker 2: stories and that on Instagram about like the crimes I did,
Speaker 2: you know, the road I was heading and got into
Speaker 2: a bitter youth worker there in the Northern Territory with
Speaker 2: a local boxing club there, and one of the stories
Speaker 2: reached another fellow, Russell Manso, and he shared my story
Speaker 2: and then did a shout out to me, and that
Speaker 2: obviously Jeff and that scene that and then Morg's Yeah.
Speaker 2: Then he started started sussing out and followed me. I
Speaker 2: followed him, and I started looking at he's reals and
Speaker 2: I thought, wow, I got this. Blake's got exactly nearly
Speaker 2: this exact same story as me, but and changed his
Speaker 2: life in prison the same year, like same age I did,
Speaker 2: you know, but obviously he's a lot more advanced. When
Speaker 2: I'm going to follow this bloke, you know, like this blake,
Speaker 2: he has got a good story and I love his
Speaker 2: reels and he's the way he's teaching everything and talking
Speaker 2: about it and the way he's cut from where he
Speaker 2: came from to where he is today just spun me out,
Speaker 2: you know. And when I was in jail, that's exactly
Speaker 2: what I was telling myself, that's where I'm going to be. Yeah,
Speaker 2: before I even knew that, those people like him doing
Speaker 2: it already, and then when I got out and seeing
Speaker 2: him doing it, that's what just blew my mind. And
Speaker 2: I was like, oh wow, I've got to meet this bloke, you.
Speaker 1: Know, get involved in that someone what he's got. It's
Speaker 1: important having role models, isn't it. Seeing someone like with
Speaker 1: Jeff breaking the mold. Like if you looked at Jeff's
Speaker 1: life twenty years inside, didn't look like he had the
Speaker 1: future and come out and he's turned it completely round
Speaker 1: that he's living a good life now. So do you
Speaker 1: see that like almost like a role model?
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, definitely, Like it just shows you that anything
Speaker 2: is possible. Yeah, and no matter what your background, no
Speaker 2: matter what your life was in the past, like you know,
Speaker 2: like you don't just have to shut down, breakdown and
Speaker 2: think and that you can't rebuild, refix and build yourself
Speaker 2: to live that better life, to live life like Jeff,
Speaker 2: you know. And yeah, it's he's approven the putting that
Speaker 2: you could do it, and so you know, I thought, well,
Speaker 2: you know, if he can do it, then I can
Speaker 2: do it, you know. Yeah, So that's what I'm trying
Speaker 2: to build now, just around Australia and the NT. You know.
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to talk about all the stuff you're
Speaker 1: doing and from what I've sayen, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: good stuff. And if you're following the pathway of how
Speaker 1: Jeff's turned his life around, I think you're heading in
Speaker 1: the right direction. But there were some deep, dark moments
Speaker 1: in the past for you, and we'll delve into that
Speaker 1: just so people understand the journey that you've been on.
Speaker 1: The upfront, I want to know, yeah, X biking and
Speaker 1: a cop. See here, I'm about to play you a video.
Speaker 1: If I was your solicitor, I'd say make no comment.
Speaker 1: It's something that's online, so it's not something that's secret.
Speaker 1: You've spoken to me about it, and I just want
Speaker 1: to want to play it and get your thoughts on
Speaker 1: it was when you've gone in the prison and an
Speaker 1: assault that you committed in the prison that was captured
Speaker 1: on the CCTV footage and released in the media. Do
Speaker 1: you mind me playing that?
Speaker 2: That's fine?
Speaker 1: Okay. Now people can't see the video that we've just
Speaker 1: played because it's a podcast, but if your head over
Speaker 1: to YouTube, it will be displayed in full. There fairly short,
Speaker 1: but intense. It looks like it was a yard are
Speaker 1: in a prison and you've approached someone giving him a
Speaker 1: kick in the head and then laid I lost count
Speaker 1: after about twenty punches and giving him another kick in
Speaker 1: the head. How do you feel watching that now? Where
Speaker 1: you're at now.
Speaker 2: I look at some definitely not a message I want
Speaker 2: to send to other people. You know. It's you know,
Speaker 2: it's a good way about going going about life, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, regardless of the situation or what's happened,
Speaker 2: you know. So yeah, you know it's I've got an
Speaker 2: extra four years for that as well.
Speaker 1: So right, yeah, I would imagine you're looking there and
Speaker 1: even at the time, like and we'll talk later when
Speaker 1: your time in prison, why that why that assault happened?
Speaker 1: But an extra four years Yeah, it might have he
Speaker 1: might have deserved it might have felt good at the
Speaker 1: time or whatever, but four years is a long time.
Speaker 1: Do you after you do something like that, do you
Speaker 1: go back to yoursel after all the bravado's gone away,
Speaker 1: and sit there and go, what the fuck? What have
Speaker 1: I done? Yeah?
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. Like you know, I was. I was
Speaker 2: one of them follows too that, you know, out of anger,
Speaker 2: I'd say something, you know, I'd say something in front
Speaker 2: of people, Yeah, whether if I'm going to this bloke,
Speaker 2: I'm going to bash him or something like that, you know,
Speaker 2: and then when that would happen, Yeah, because I've said
Speaker 2: it in front of people, especially in jail, I had
Speaker 2: to do it. Yeah, I could not not do it,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Yeah, So that's kind of
Speaker 2: the scenario that with that situation as well, And I thought, oh,
Speaker 2: I've sat in front of in front of the young lads, now,
Speaker 2: you know, I've got to go to show them, you know,
Speaker 2: I got to prove you know that I can do it,
Speaker 2: you know. So yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's.
Speaker 1: A tough environment it's an environment that's Yeah, you've got
Speaker 1: to be able to hold your own and make statements
Speaker 1: like that. And we have a lot of blokes have
Speaker 1: been in prison and talk about that and the impact
Speaker 1: that it has on you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely it's it's definitely not a place
Speaker 2: anyone wants to be, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think people like you sitting down
Speaker 1: and getting the message across that, Okay, it might sound
Speaker 1: cool when you're a young fella trying to make a
Speaker 1: name for yourself, but no one wants to been in prison.
Speaker 2: Nah. No, definitely not like you know, it's and I've
Speaker 2: seen that the whole time. I've done it nearly ten
Speaker 2: years in Northern Territory. So that's when I took back
Speaker 2: and I sat back, and I started observing people and
Speaker 2: watching certain groups and their stories what they kept coming
Speaker 2: in and out for, and I thought, you got to
Speaker 2: change it. I mean, even the toughest lads in prison
Speaker 2: would always win you about being in prison, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Like it wasn't they didn't. And then
Speaker 2: all the follows that are saying, oh I do this
Speaker 2: standing on my head and all that, Well, then why
Speaker 2: are you running from the police. If you can do
Speaker 2: prison standing on your head, you're not afraid of jail.
Speaker 2: Why do you run every time the cop has come
Speaker 2: for you? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I had a Spanion on the podcast, you know Spanion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was talking about in youth detention, boys homes and
Speaker 1: all that. It all sound glamorous. Everyone was out to
Speaker 1: make a name for themselves. And then when he finally
Speaker 1: got the prison, he looked around and gone, it's just yeah,
Speaker 1: the ones with the respect that these old pricks that
Speaker 1: have been in there for half their life, and it's
Speaker 1: not a life you want to live. But look, we've
Speaker 1: jumped ahead, we've taken a straight into the prison. We
Speaker 1: better let you grow up. So tell us your story.
Speaker 1: Where'd you grow up?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I was born and raised in Darwin, so yeah,
Speaker 2: that's where pretty much where my family live and my
Speaker 2: parents and that Yeah, born there as well, grew up there,
Speaker 2: so you know that's that's that's where I was born
Speaker 2: and grew up in the street.
Speaker 1: See yeah, when you say grew up on the streets,
Speaker 1: what was it? What was your childhood like?
Speaker 2: The childhood wasn't like it was it was semi okay,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean a lot of a lot of
Speaker 2: alcohol and violence, like domestic violence and stuff like that
Speaker 2: when I was a young young kid, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So yeah, I remember still remember all those days,
Speaker 2: you know, like really well, yeah, it definitely wasn't and
Speaker 2: it was always always our house was kind of like
Speaker 2: the go to place when people wanted a party, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So so at that age, what were you saying?
Speaker 1: How were we and what whatty?
Speaker 2: To be honest, as far as you can go back
Speaker 2: to as far as earliest memories, earliest memories, yeah, until
Speaker 2: you know, like to my teens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And how did you react to that? Like
Speaker 1: you you're running around unsupervised or what?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so I actually just take off and
Speaker 2: because I was petrified when I seen that stuff happened.
Speaker 2: And you're yeah, yeah, you know, so all the uncles
Speaker 2: are punching on in front of yours, you know, and
Speaker 2: you use the toddlers and you know, like three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
Speaker 2: nineteen years old, you know, so.
Speaker 1: Did you think that was the norm? Did you just
Speaker 1: like that was what life was about? Like, I'm just
Speaker 1: curious as a kid if that's what you've seen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, to be honest, I knew what was going
Speaker 2: to happen. Every time they was a drinking, Like people
Speaker 2: were drinking and partying, and it kind of like every
Speaker 2: place that I went to, no matter what, that would
Speaker 2: happen at those places, you know, no matter who, which family,
Speaker 2: whichever place it was at. That was definitely the case,
Speaker 2: and definitely by the end of the night there was
Speaker 2: ambulances and police cars rocking up for some sort of
Speaker 2: you know, pretty serious assault.
Speaker 1: You described to me when we're having a yarn the
Speaker 1: other day that, yeah, you're riding around on pushbikes and
Speaker 1: front rocks at police cars and taxis and that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. Is that, yeah, the type of thing that
Speaker 1: you're getting up to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yea. So it was just you know, like all
Speaker 2: of us kids in that from the street, you know,
Speaker 2: we had all the street kids and all that was
Speaker 2: well it was all housing commission, you know. So we
Speaker 2: used to just jumping out push bikes and take off,
Speaker 2: especially when all the parents and that all the all
Speaker 2: the adults were drinking and you know there was our
Speaker 2: safe haven. Killed Tom, kill her, bought them roll around
Speaker 2: and yeah, we used to to to kill that bottom
Speaker 2: you know, that would rock taxis or rock police cars
Speaker 2: and try to try getting the police chase and that
Speaker 2: you know, I went to try to get chased by them,
Speaker 2: you know, right.
Speaker 1: They get their attention. F Yeah yeah, rock at the
Speaker 1: police car. How old were you.
Speaker 2: Then, that's I reckon. That was even before my teens
Speaker 2: and all the way up and through through to my teens.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, you mentioned if you're comfortable talking about it,
Speaker 1: but it's happened to a lot of people that are
Speaker 1: sexual abuse too.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, I went through that as a as
Speaker 2: a child as well, you know, from a primarly friend.
Speaker 2: So yeahs I was getting sexually abused by him since
Speaker 2: a kid, you know what I mean. And that all
Speaker 2: happened at these parties, you know, so when the families well,
Speaker 2: drinking and and having a laugh and partying and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. You know, by the end of the night
Speaker 2: thereas yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly that's the case,
Speaker 2: you know, and you see that around everywhere, you know,
Speaker 2: that's that's definitely what happens, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah, and it's important we talk about your
Speaker 1: upbringing because I've said that in the introduction. Let's find
Speaker 1: out about this person and see why you turned out
Speaker 1: the way you turned out what you described there there,
Speaker 1: there's some pretty horrific things for a young fellow to
Speaker 1: be growing up and experiencing that type of stuff and
Speaker 1: without direction or that. If your mates are from rocks
Speaker 1: at the police cars I'd be from rocks at the
Speaker 1: police cars too. You wouldn't be thinking it's all about it.
Speaker 2: No, No, that's exactly right. Yeah, and that's what happened.
Speaker 1: You know what what you got taken away from from
Speaker 1: darn was an uncle that took you down to South Australia. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So my mum's brother, he's a good man, you know,
Speaker 2: is pretty successful in news line of work down in
Speaker 2: South Australia, you know, looking after Indigenous people down there.
Speaker 2: And I was just bluing punching on in the territory
Speaker 2: and stole my mom's cart and busted up, you know,
Speaker 2: like when I was I think I was fourteen maybe.
Speaker 1: Though that never goes down well nah, nah.
Speaker 2: You know, I still remember when my mom walked in,
Speaker 2: you know, and you come up and booted me in
Speaker 2: the ribs and told me to get get the fuck out,
Speaker 2: you know, and so I ran because my stepdad woke
Speaker 2: up and he was a scary one, you know, So
Speaker 2: I boss jumped the fence took off, you know, and
Speaker 2: I was living at bus stops, breaking into the shops,
Speaker 2: stealing whatever I could to eat, you know, for days,
Speaker 2: you know, in the house like lounge, shopping. And I
Speaker 2: was fourteen, fourteen years old, but I was too scared
Speaker 2: and too afraid and too embarrassed to ask friends or
Speaker 2: family if I could stay out theirs.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was too scared too that I thought that my
Speaker 2: mum and the old man was going to rock up,
Speaker 2: you know, looking for me to give me a hiding,
Speaker 2: you know, So I just so I would, I would
Speaker 2: avoid those places, you know. So I ended up the
Speaker 2: air crashing at bus stops in it for a little while,
Speaker 2: and until I met another fellow and through one of
Speaker 2: my cousins, and we just went and crashed on ease lands,
Speaker 2: you know, until I was at Casuna shopping center one
Speaker 2: day and my sister told me that my uncle was
Speaker 2: down from Adelaide, yeah, and that he wanted to talk
Speaker 2: to me. So then yeah, I went home. That's when
Speaker 2: he said, you know, you're coming to Adelaide with me,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: So okay, how did that work out? How old were
Speaker 1: you when you went fourteen four and how that? How
Speaker 1: did that work out? You get some stability?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no it was you know, so I
Speaker 2: agreed to it, and yeah, we jumped in the car
Speaker 2: and you know, about a week I think it was
Speaker 2: a week after and we drove down back down to Adelaide.
Speaker 2: He enrolled me into a high school down there, Underdee
Speaker 2: High and yeah, I went through a completed year twelve
Speaker 2: and that there. You know, I still got hooked in
Speaker 2: the grog and stuff like that, and I was still
Speaker 2: punching on blew and like back. You know. As for
Speaker 2: the street crime stuff, yeah, you know that that kind
Speaker 2: of that disappeared when I was down there, you know,
Speaker 2: like dropped off.
Speaker 1: How long we're down there for? How long were you
Speaker 1: living with your uncle?
Speaker 2: Well that that's that there. I was there for three
Speaker 2: four years, four years yeah that still.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you attended school, you were going to school,
Speaker 1: yeah mate, yeah, okay, so you were looking at sort
Speaker 1: of seventeen eighteen. What made you head up back up
Speaker 1: to the Northern Territory.
Speaker 2: I think I just missed home, you know, missed home.
Speaker 2: All my nephews and nieces were growing up and they
Speaker 2: didn't even know my name, and you know, so I
Speaker 2: kind of wanted to go back up there and reconnect
Speaker 2: with my brothers, my sisters, with the kids too, you know,
Speaker 2: all the nephews and nieces, especially after like what like,
Speaker 2: especially after what happened to me when I was growing
Speaker 2: up as a kid around that area and them households.
Speaker 2: I didn't want my nephews and nieces to experience that
Speaker 2: too and go through the same thing. So so I
Speaker 2: thought I better get up there, you know, and just
Speaker 2: make sure that's all right. They're right, you know.
Speaker 1: And how'd that work out for you when you when
Speaker 1: you went back up there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it started off all right, and then again I
Speaker 2: got hooked on the grog and some of the drugs
Speaker 2: and drug life and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I read one of the interviews, and you've done quite
Speaker 1: a few few interviews now, but we met and feathermone
Speaker 1: the euphoric hit that you got when you tried it
Speaker 1: first uff, Yeah, dragged into it. Yeah, what what the
Speaker 1: talk was through that process?
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it was. I still remember the first day
Speaker 2: I took it. I had a like a good made
Speaker 2: of mine. We went for a drive, packed up packed
Speaker 2: up in a like in a in the bush and
Speaker 2: he's like, can you get that? Get the pipe out
Speaker 2: of the glove box. I was like, oh, I thought
Speaker 2: it was I thought it was a marijuana pipe, you know.
Speaker 2: So I pulled in and it's just this glass pipe
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, that's weird, you know. Gave it
Speaker 2: to him and then he's pulled out this little bag
Speaker 2: of ice, myth and like, what the hell is that,
Speaker 2: you know, and he's just like it's ice, you know.
Speaker 2: I was like, what do you mean ice? And he's nah,
Speaker 2: it's like meth, you know, like it gets you high
Speaker 2: and want someone's like noah, nah na stuff that, you know,
Speaker 2: like I get drug tested and he's like, no, it's
Speaker 2: out of your system in a couple of days, you know.
Speaker 2: And then I thought, oh, I'll give it a little try.
Speaker 2: As soon as I had that first blaze, it was
Speaker 2: just over, you know, like, yeah, I just can't remember.
Speaker 2: Like the next ten years pretty much was just a blur.
Speaker 1: I've had other people on the podcast and no people
Speaker 1: that have that same story. But yeah, you think, you
Speaker 1: think your strong willed, you could I can try it
Speaker 1: and just see what it's like and then walk away
Speaker 1: from it. But people just get that first first hit
Speaker 1: and they're gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it was after that first hit, you know,
Speaker 2: I just just went downhill from there, like I lost
Speaker 2: thirty thirty six kilo, just was getting sores everywhere. I
Speaker 2: was just paranoid, wouldn't leave home for days, you know,
Speaker 2: like staring at the window for two three days at
Speaker 2: a time.
Speaker 1: Like you get that glaze looking that junkie type look
Speaker 1: about it, you don't you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, had you got in the training and that when
Speaker 1: you were down in Adelaide, were you doing any stuff physically?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well when I was down there, I was playing
Speaker 2: rugby and you know, like I had a little gym
Speaker 2: set up and stuff like that, so I I was
Speaker 2: hitting the gym here.
Speaker 1: And looking after yourself. Yeah, and then then it just
Speaker 1: all went skew if when you got the drugs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, when I went up and got on the
Speaker 2: drugs and it just all went down here, just no training, nothing,
Speaker 2: just hitting the drugs heavy, not eating, screaming.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's not a real good promotion for it, is it.
Speaker 1: How do you address that up?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get it, get it high, and then you
Speaker 1: destroy your life.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, you know, like I've had mates millionaires that
Speaker 2: own their own bigger companies, like had contracts on minds
Speaker 2: and at an NT like living out of the cars
Speaker 2: like like in no time, you know from that stuff
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do need to get that message out, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Like you see some really capable people with just their
Speaker 1: lives are destroyed once they get get addicted to it.
Speaker 1: What was the other thing you're doing in life? How
Speaker 1: did you find your way towards bikes? What what attracted
Speaker 1: the bikes first?
Speaker 2: Up before the Yeah, so what happened there was I
Speaker 2: was I was living and working in Perth at the time,
Speaker 2: and I had a mate, a really good mate. He
Speaker 2: was that good like I just call it my cousin
Speaker 2: and know, and from Adelaide. And he told me that,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, we're going to head up to daw and
Speaker 2: I want to introduce you to a feel of my mates,
Speaker 2: you know. And I'm like, oh, who your mates? Like
Speaker 2: I know they were the White Club, you know, like
Speaker 2: we're there one percenters. And I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: And I thought I don't know any one percent you know,
Speaker 2: And I thought it'd be interesting to find out about
Speaker 2: him and stuff like that, and so I flew up
Speaker 2: to flew up to day and got introduced to him,
Speaker 2: and you know, there's a big bunch of these pretty
Speaker 2: big big lads covering ink and stuff like that, partying
Speaker 2: and at the pub, you know, drinking up and you know,
Speaker 2: we just we just partied for a couple of days
Speaker 2: and that's when I got to meet him or and
Speaker 2: that was the first my introduction to that life, you know.
Speaker 1: And what what the track? You're already into the drugs
Speaker 1: at that stage. I've been off.
Speaker 2: I've actually been off the drugs for a while.
Speaker 1: The yeah, okay, so what what what attrack did you to?
Speaker 2: What was I think it was mainly just like the tattoos.
Speaker 1: And drinking and you tear it up at that stage.
Speaker 2: Nah, And I had a couple of tattoos, but yeah,
Speaker 2: nothing nothing like how I've got now. So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So the drinking, the and I hear blakes of the
Speaker 1: bening clubs and said, look, it's the good parts of
Speaker 1: you're you're on the high, when you're you're riding the bikes,
Speaker 1: you're hanging out with mates and getting all sorts of
Speaker 1: sorts of trouble. That's the sort of attraction you were
Speaker 1: looking for, is And I'm asking this question I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that it's a case with you, but a lot
Speaker 1: of the blokes I've spoken to have gone down the
Speaker 1: path of going into the omcgs, have had childhoods where
Speaker 1: they didn't feel like they had a connection, felt like
Speaker 1: they were out misfits, didn't fit in, and they found
Speaker 1: that brotherhood in the bike gang. Is that something that
Speaker 1: resonated with you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, you don't like it. You know, like that
Speaker 2: sense of protection too, you know, like you know, if
Speaker 2: anything happened to you that you know, or you got
Speaker 2: you all the lads and all that, they would just
Speaker 2: come come come back you up, no matter what you
Speaker 2: know or supposed to you know, So you know, was
Speaker 2: that that kind of lifestyle as well? And you know
Speaker 2: the how they didn't like certain criminals, you know, like
Speaker 2: like child sex offenders, is you know, crime against children,
Speaker 2: et cetera. You know, like all that kind of stuff too.
Speaker 2: So you know that's definitely all that was was a big,
Speaker 2: big partner as well.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you saw some some of shared values in
Speaker 1: what they did. Yeah, okay, when when did you actually
Speaker 1: what was the process of joining the club and what
Speaker 1: club are You're happy to mention the club that you joined.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I was, so, I was a member of
Speaker 2: the Rebels MCP. So yeah, we just chapter and chapter. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so we started up and down and I joined them.
Speaker 2: I started nominal for them, and yeah, it was just
Speaker 2: basically all we had to do, like all I had
Speaker 2: to do, like obviously different different parts of the clubs
Speaker 2: and that, you know, they've got different ways of you know,
Speaker 2: getting your colors and have it. Just prove yourself nominal,
Speaker 2: nominal prospecting, you know, for them for for the twelve
Speaker 2: months or however long it takes for them to give
Speaker 2: you your colors, and you know, just work behind the bar,
Speaker 2: make sure that you know, like all all the clubhouse,
Speaker 2: yeah yeah, make sure the club house clean, the bikes,
Speaker 2: you know, the field up, you know, going on runs
Speaker 2: like you always got to be on runs in that too,
Speaker 2: and get involved in all that stuff too, and volunteer
Speaker 2: and help out with all them, you know. So and
Speaker 2: then once you can I prove that and then you know,
Speaker 2: all the other members and that like yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: then yeah, they'll come to come to a point where
Speaker 2: they're just like, all right, well we're going to give
Speaker 2: him his colors.
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, did you did you have enough concern
Speaker 1: that that stage when when you join the club that yeah,
Speaker 1: the old addages, you're even going to end up there
Speaker 1: or in jail. Yeah, but I suppose you've got all
Speaker 1: the bravard they at that point in time, and you
Speaker 1: think it's not going to happen to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, kind of, you know, especially Daryn, like darn
Speaker 2: wasn't There was some bad stuff that happened up there too,
Speaker 2: involving clubs and stuff like that, but it wasn't really.
Speaker 2: It was nothing like like bloody Sydney or bloody Melbourne
Speaker 2: or or Perth or South Australia. You know. So he's like,
Speaker 2: you'll fighting more with you like the cruise, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, like mate, like pretty much my own
Speaker 2: family and stuff like that, you know, like you know
Speaker 2: that's who, That's who it was all warring with. You know.
Speaker 1: So when when did you first get in trouble with
Speaker 1: the when you were hanging out with the bikies with
Speaker 1: the law, what was there?
Speaker 2: I think it was twenty thirteen and that might have
Speaker 2: been two and thirteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I got done for a robbery and company. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: so I was a debt collection. I went and collected
Speaker 2: a debt or one bloke Rode. I think it was
Speaker 2: like four thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and did that Did you get custodial sentence
Speaker 1: on that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I got. I'm pretty sure it was a
Speaker 2: two and a half year with twelve months twelve months
Speaker 2: of serve.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so that was your first stint inside. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: how did you find that? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I was I was discussing, you know, like up in
Speaker 2: the prison in yeah, old Bear. Yeah, so I was
Speaker 2: the old Barama jail. So that's what was my first
Speaker 2: introduction to prison there, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, they threw me in there, threw me in
Speaker 2: a block cord. They called it the bird cage. So
Speaker 2: it's the walls were just you know those the steel
Speaker 2: mesh that they use when they're pouring slabs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with the big holes in them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So all they did was they were the walls.
Speaker 2: They just welded them, tacked them to yeah, like a
Speaker 2: lego block. Yeah. Yeah, so you could see straight through them.
Speaker 2: The breeze comes straight through, and you know, you've got dormitories.
Speaker 2: So there's there's three wings. You know, you go to
Speaker 2: walk in. There's a wing to the right wing, to
Speaker 2: the left and wing straight down and then every dorm.
Speaker 2: I think there was about two four six eight, ten, twelve,
Speaker 2: maybe fourteen sixteen prisoners and each each each dorm.
Speaker 1: And were you're you're in the gang at that stage,
Speaker 1: so yeah, they keep you, keep you separated or kept
Speaker 1: kept you together. And was there other members of your
Speaker 1: gang in there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, there was another member of the same club,
Speaker 2: and they kept they pretty much kept us separated.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, kept your own gang mate mate separated. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they tried keeping us us to separate it from
Speaker 2: each other, right, yeah, through majority of the sentence. It
Speaker 2: wasn't until halfway through it and they you know, said, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, we chuck him in the block with with
Speaker 2: the you know, the other member.
Speaker 1: You know other dude, what about with the indigenous fellows
Speaker 1: in there? Because you have the high rate of incarceration
Speaker 1: up there in Northern Territory, did you you have people
Speaker 1: in there, your mob in there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, like I had heaps of family in there,
Speaker 2: like heaps. Yeah. Yeah, that was if they if they
Speaker 2: weren't my family, then a lot of them were in
Speaker 2: laws or in laws to my family, you know, So
Speaker 2: you know, I was just packs of them, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, like.
Speaker 1: Did anyone did you have any that first stint that
Speaker 1: you did inside, did anyone give you a wake up
Speaker 1: call and go what are you doing with your life?
Speaker 1: Or it was just this is a path where we follow.
Speaker 2: No no, you know, like it's no one actually yeah,
Speaker 2: honestly gaming it talking to you know, like yeah when
Speaker 2: I did that first little stint or anything like that,
Speaker 2: you know. So yeah, yeah, they just just rolled with
Speaker 2: the punches really and just went in there and done
Speaker 2: my twelve months and punched on through that twelve months
Speaker 2: I was there, you know, just trying to make a
Speaker 2: name for myself in prison as well, you.
Speaker 1: Know, punching on in prison. Yeah, yeah, it was that.
Speaker 1: I know. We've had Russell Mancer we mentioned there's sadly
Speaker 1: passed away, but he tells the times he head up
Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory and it was a rough old
Speaker 1: roughfold time in prison. Yeah, lots of lots of fights, heaps, heaps.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just every day it's just fights after fire
Speaker 2: like coaches getting called.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and no punishment for it or.
Speaker 2: You know, you get thrown down. It's it's weird, like
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of the people that I see,
Speaker 2: like I've seen it that many times where the actual
Speaker 2: people initiate the troublemakers, and that they always do it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, like they'll come down to the back cells
Speaker 2: like separate confinement and then they get it let out
Speaker 2: the next day and they'll get shipped off to a
Speaker 2: local security or anything. I had to try to separate
Speaker 2: the two groups, yeah, or you know, to separate whoever
Speaker 2: it is, and then you'd have like people like me
Speaker 2: and a few other young lads that you know, like
Speaker 2: if we even said something wrong in front of the
Speaker 2: office or whatever like that, you know, they would slap
Speaker 2: us for and max block for another six months and
Speaker 2: then put us on restrictions, phone restrictions, visit restrictions, non
Speaker 2: contact stuff like that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So, just how long did you do with that stint?
Speaker 1: You got two and a half years, was that the Yeah,
Speaker 1: two and a half.
Speaker 2: So two and a half years serve twelve months suspended
Speaker 2: after twelve.
Speaker 1: When you're in there and I'm just asking you and
Speaker 1: everyone and have their own own different things, did you
Speaker 1: think at some point in time in that twelve months,
Speaker 1: and we know without giving away at the end, that
Speaker 1: you've turned you turned your life around in your latest stint,
Speaker 1: But in that first twelve months, did you think, Jesus Shannon,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Mate? Did you, yeah, question where
Speaker 1: your life was heading?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I did, Like I did. I did definitely questioned it,
Speaker 2: you know. So it was the anxiety and that the
Speaker 2: things that'd run through your mind when you're in no
Speaker 2: situations and no positions in themselves, especially the back cells
Speaker 2: and that you know, like and like it's just a
Speaker 2: stuff too, Like you're just like there's that million things
Speaker 2: hitting you at the same time from all different directions.
Speaker 2: You know, you get confused and you don't know what
Speaker 2: you know, what's right from wrong. And like I said that,
Speaker 2: when you come out from from themselves, you know, because
Speaker 2: there's a lot of people on edge in them places too,
Speaker 2: So you can't come out and I don't want to
Speaker 2: do this, I don't want to do that, or I
Speaker 2: can't do this anymore, can't do that because with certain
Speaker 2: people too, there's repercussions you know if you do try
Speaker 2: to get out or leave or you know, like you know,
Speaker 2: it's in any anything and dar on like all the
Speaker 2: street gangs and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: You know, I think I understand what you're saying. You've
Speaker 1: said in those quiet moments when you're tucked away in
Speaker 1: the cell, your head spinning, you've got thoughts going through
Speaker 1: your mind and questioning your life and all that. But
Speaker 1: the moment the gates or the cell door opens and
Speaker 1: you're back in the yard, you've got to switch on
Speaker 1: to the tough guy. Yeah, yeah, you do. You don't
Speaker 1: give a fuck.
Speaker 2: Yeah you can't. You can't show.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: It's like I said, especially that place, like there wasn't
Speaker 2: a day in that place where I didn't well when
Speaker 2: you weren't suffering from any kind of anxiety, like you're hot,
Speaker 2: you lit, your anxiety levels were heightened. There was tension
Speaker 2: in the block all the time, you know, So regardless
Speaker 2: of how you're feeling in the cell, once the doors
Speaker 2: are unlocked and you come out, it's game on, you know,
Speaker 2: Like you've got to walk out with your head held
Speaker 2: high and ready to punch on with anyone, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like it's a good environment.
Speaker 2: Nah, Na, it's disgusting.
Speaker 1: I've spoken the blokes in there and they talk about, yeah,
Speaker 1: you've got to bridge up the whole time. As you
Speaker 1: just describe, you've got to be ready to go, and
Speaker 1: then when you get released, you're still carrying that attitude.
Speaker 1: When you're out on the street and you walk past
Speaker 1: someone that bumps into you and you feel like you've
Speaker 1: got to knock him out to hold hold your ground.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, that's exactly what happens, you know. You
Speaker 2: know when I got out, the same thing, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, if I bump into this person or bump
Speaker 2: into that person, you know, like, am I going to
Speaker 2: have to punch on? Like even though I don't want
Speaker 2: it any more? Like I've changed my life, you know,
Speaker 2: like I've made peace with my pass and made peace
Speaker 2: with my enemies. Whether they made peace with me after
Speaker 2: that now it's I don't know, but I know one
Speaker 2: hundred percent that I've made peace with them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: So you know, if I've seen them and they wanted
Speaker 2: to shake my hand, right now, do it? You know
Speaker 2: what I mean?
Speaker 1: Was there anything in that first thing you did in
Speaker 1: prison that you reckon could have made the difference for
Speaker 1: you or change your trajectory on where your life was heading?
Speaker 1: Is there anything? Or were you just You're too caught
Speaker 1: up in the lifestyle at that point in time.
Speaker 2: I think it was my age too, you know, because
Speaker 2: I was still a young fella. Young I was twenty
Speaker 2: five and twenty five, twenty six, so I still seem
Speaker 2: in my little prime, in my prime young adult that
Speaker 2: stage is. And a lot of the young fellows and
Speaker 2: all that, like, and the older fellows looked up to
Speaker 2: me too, you know, because I would punch on yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, and I did punch on you know, on
Speaker 2: the streets inside, you know, so you know, I kind
Speaker 2: of had to when I come out, you know, just
Speaker 2: play that same role, you know.
Speaker 1: And if you're on the sets intoxicating too, if you're
Speaker 1: strutting your stuff and people looking up to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, Like you know, it's and like
Speaker 2: people don't realize too, you know, like you've after you've
Speaker 2: done what you're done. Like I'm not talking for everybody,
Speaker 2: but like I know a lot of the people that
Speaker 2: do it, you know, you do feel guilty after. Like
Speaker 2: I've seen some of the hardest lads in jail that
Speaker 2: run the anti correction system right now come to me
Speaker 2: depressed and ain't like upset with themselves after them half
Speaker 2: killing somebody inside their cell because yeah, because they looked
Speaker 2: at them the wrong way, or they owe them buy
Speaker 2: up eighty dollar by for the week, you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: and they come back. Oh you know, you know, I
Speaker 2: feel bad and you know they'll shattered.
Speaker 1: You know, I've seen that. But the sad part in
Speaker 1: that environment, there's you can't show any of that, can you.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. You got to bottle that up. As
Speaker 1: you've described. So you got out, you're still in the
Speaker 1: still in the bikis.
Speaker 2: So I definitely left them.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but this is after your first stint.
Speaker 2: After the first hint. Yeah yeah, yeah, so it was
Speaker 2: it was weird like after the first stint, I got
Speaker 2: kicked out. So I got kicked out while I was
Speaker 2: still in prison.
Speaker 1: How do you get kicked out?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's exactly right. I don't know. So I
Speaker 2: got kicked out, well, I was still in prison. I
Speaker 2: think it's because I was a little bit loose to
Speaker 2: you know, like when I was on the drugs and
Speaker 2: the drink I was, I was rocking up the places.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not going to lie. You know, I
Speaker 2: had blades on me, little samurai SuDS and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: you know, when you're in. When I was in, when
Speaker 2: I was outside with the club before I went in,
Speaker 2: and I think the lads who was they all left
Speaker 2: the club now, but the ones who was in the
Speaker 2: club at the time I was in the club, yeah,
Speaker 2: they were kind of on the back foot too, thinking
Speaker 2: that I was just spoke going to stab us or
Speaker 2: was he going to hit us? You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So so when I went when I got locked up
Speaker 2: and did that twelve months, they made an executive decision
Speaker 2: to kick me out while I was still in jail.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Well, I've heard the people getting suspended from school, but yeah,
Speaker 1: suspended from the BIKEI club, I suppose. Only the other
Speaker 1: one I've heard of is that man Mamas was applying
Speaker 1: for a BIKEI club and the biking club Man Mamas
Speaker 1: from the Link Cafe seeds that that, oh and the
Speaker 1: bike he said, no, it's too crazy crazy for us.
Speaker 1: But okay, so your club would sort of distance themselves
Speaker 1: from you because that didn't give you a wake up
Speaker 1: call that you maybe your life's are a bit reckless.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it kind of did, you know, But but I
Speaker 2: don't know. I think I think it's because I was young.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a cool life to live too,
Speaker 2: you know, like especially when I had like a little
Speaker 2: fan base. You know, a lot of people looked up
Speaker 2: to me and thought I was mad and mad as
Speaker 2: you know, especially in dawn and ant.
Speaker 1: Like, so's the wild West to start?
Speaker 2: Yeah it is, you know, like, yeah, there's just a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff happening in the streets are down, you know.
Speaker 1: So is that it was sort of buying into your persona.
Speaker 1: I suppose that, Yeah, I'm bad, I'm the baddest of
Speaker 1: the bad type situation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because because I was like real close with a
Speaker 2: lot of the most dangerous people in the territory at
Speaker 2: the time too, you know. Yeah, So and they were
Speaker 2: they were they were looking up to me, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. So and these these blokes here, they
Speaker 2: wouldn't care. They'll put them nine straight through your throat
Speaker 2: without even thinking, you know what I mean. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: so I thought I'd been not upset to keep this.
Speaker 2: I better keep a bit of stay tough.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, we're all made.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, I'll save me a knife and
Speaker 2: the neck anyway, Jesus.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's a tough tough life. You're talking. How did
Speaker 1: you get back in?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's a controversy in the club a few
Speaker 2: of the members from down South and that were a
Speaker 2: bit upset about them because they obviously they told a
Speaker 2: little bit of FIBs about about why I allegedly left
Speaker 2: and stuff like that, and I was like, no, I
Speaker 2: didn't leave. I got kicked out, you know. And yeah,
Speaker 2: a couple of the fellows that I got along with
Speaker 2: in the club down Sowth come up and we had
Speaker 2: a meeting and they invited me to the meeting. We
Speaker 2: had a yarn and they said, oh, do you want
Speaker 2: to come back in as sergeant at arms.
Speaker 1: Right, okay, describe the role of sergeant and arms people. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's just like pretty much you're enforce, make
Speaker 2: sure you don't enforce all the club policies, protect the president,
Speaker 2: you know, so you're the president's right own man. Anything
Speaker 2: happens to him, you know, like you're the one that's
Speaker 2: getting done for it, you know, so you know, does
Speaker 2: the basic role of him, you know, like just yeah.
Speaker 1: I see. It's almost like a poisoned chalice of sergeant
Speaker 1: and arms now, isn't it. Because you've got to stand up.
Speaker 1: As you said, you're the enforcer, so you're going to
Speaker 1: be in the forefront of anything that goes down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're the front. You're in the front of the line,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like if anything goes down,
Speaker 2: any any dramas, anything wars, anything, you know, people after
Speaker 2: the club or people are dirty on you for this,
Speaker 2: well dirty on your members for this. You know, like
Speaker 2: you're the you're the main man. Like to go there
Speaker 2: and sort it, you know, so you know, and it
Speaker 2: puts you in a bit of a position, you know,
Speaker 2: like you're like I said, like the anxiety and that
Speaker 2: stuff like that, the paranoid that comes with all that too.
Speaker 2: You know, like when you're pulling up that shops at
Speaker 2: the petrol station and that you know, car pulls up
Speaker 2: and the boughs are next to you or behind you,
Speaker 2: and it's the windows are tinted, you know, like you
Speaker 2: don't know if you know to grab a weapon or
Speaker 2: not in case you know, there's somebody it's like your
Speaker 2: enemy or you're an enemy of your mate, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. That's that's so, and so he hangs around,
Speaker 2: he hangs around old mate. You know, let's get him.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The way you're describing describing the life, it doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like a great life to me.
Speaker 2: Like, no no, no, you know it is.
Speaker 1: It's Yeah, I think it's it's good someone that's lived
Speaker 1: the life talking about it, and yeah, others will have
Speaker 1: to learn learn their own lessons, but this is your experience,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of pressure and stress. They talk
Speaker 1: about pressure and stress in different environments, but being the
Speaker 1: sergeant arms and the OMCG is yeah, yeah, you've been
Speaker 1: waiting for the door, waiting for anything.
Speaker 2: When you one hundred percent and you're not the biggest
Speaker 2: The biggest issue I had in there too, And in
Speaker 2: the end, which is one of the biggest reasons why
Speaker 2: I left her, is every single prison stint I did,
Speaker 2: or every single fight that ever did I was with
Speaker 2: the club was for somebody else's dramas, not mine.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I thought I'm making all these enemies, but
Speaker 2: all these other fellows are the ones causing all the dramas.
Speaker 2: Because there's six foot tall bulletproof and on the roads
Speaker 2: or whatever like that. Why can't they fight their bown battle?
Speaker 2: You know, they're the ones that got themselves into that ship. Yeah, like,
Speaker 2: let's get let's tell them to get themselves out of it,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Makes sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, And then I just yelled, thought, fuck, I'm
Speaker 2: going to get murdered and that or whatever like that
Speaker 2: for somebody else's bullshit, you know. I mean, I've had enough,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well it came to a bit of a end
Speaker 1: in that the offense that you ended up doing ten
Speaker 1: years ten years for. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that there was a bit of a war
Speaker 2: going on in the club against another lad who was
Speaker 2: an associate I've asked, but was with another club, right,
Speaker 2: so he like, you know, he was ono on him
Speaker 2: for years and you know, Wheels mates at one stage,
Speaker 2: and he ended up owing me a bit of money
Speaker 2: and so I went there to go get the money
Speaker 2: and he didn't have it. So he didn't have it,
Speaker 2: And then I gave him a couple of chances he
Speaker 2: didn't have, so I punched him around. I gave him
Speaker 2: my hiding, and then as I left, he caught up
Speaker 2: a few people and was running me down, putting me
Speaker 2: on the dog and you know, saying you know, we
Speaker 2: can't this and that, you know. So I didn't like that,
Speaker 2: so I went back, gave him another hiding the next
Speaker 2: day and then told him just just leave it now,
Speaker 2: just shut your mouth, just leave it at that. Then
Speaker 2: I went back and then yeah, he kept going again.
Speaker 2: And then another person I didn't even know, but they're
Speaker 2: friends with my nephew come and told me, Hey, you
Speaker 2: don't know me, Can I talk to you? And I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, yeah, nah, No, I heard that fellow,
Speaker 2: you know, like he's saying this is this and that
Speaker 2: about you, and I was like oh. And then I
Speaker 2: thought I was just going to leave it, you know,
Speaker 2: But then my housemate of times like, no, no, we
Speaker 2: can't do that, you know, We've got to go get him.
Speaker 2: I was like, can we get a feed? First? We
Speaker 2: went passed through Macas and went there. But what did Yeah,
Speaker 2: there went to Maccas and went down there. And but
Speaker 2: what I didn't realize is that, for some reason, it
Speaker 2: just felt weird, like I set up the whole time.
Speaker 2: And as I've walked in to walk down to his
Speaker 2: workship because he lived in an industrial area, he wasn't
Speaker 2: in there. I thought, Oh, that's weird. But then as
Speaker 2: the sun was kind of going down and I've seen
Speaker 2: his headlights coming like not I couldn't hear the car moving,
Speaker 2: but I can see the headlights coming up. It was a big,
Speaker 2: big road, you know, and I looked. I walked down
Speaker 2: and looked down, and I seen his high lucks just
Speaker 2: sitting there in the middle of the road and like
Speaker 2: facing me. And so I started walking towards him and
Speaker 2: done a twelve, showed him that I had no weapons,
Speaker 2: you know, and told him to get out the car.
Speaker 2: You don't just have another smash, you know. And yeah,
Speaker 2: our first gear, second gear, third gear, and just hit me,
Speaker 2: just ran me over clean over you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then I remember, still getting stunned. I hit the ground.
Speaker 2: He's locked the brakes up, and I thought, like I
Speaker 2: couldn't move, couldn't hear, like everything was ringing, but I
Speaker 2: could see what was going on, Like my vision slowly
Speaker 2: started coming back again, and he was looking at me
Speaker 2: through the window, you know, And I thought, no, he's
Speaker 2: going to double back and come and run me over
Speaker 2: to finish me off, you know. And I managed to
Speaker 2: start moving my fingers, my toes, and as I pushed
Speaker 2: off the ground, I just felt jelly, like my whole
Speaker 2: left side of my body was just there was something wrong. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I coughed up a heap of blood on the road,
Speaker 2: and I thought, said, that's my lung, you know, like
Speaker 2: something's happened to I'm punched my lung. And then I
Speaker 2: yelled out to my housemail's brow so you could get
Speaker 2: me to the hospital. Said I'm dying, and he's like no, no,
Speaker 2: And we both started laughing, you know, because because I
Speaker 2: got myself off the ground, you know, like he's like nah.
Speaker 2: And then he come over towards me and I said, bro,
Speaker 2: And as I started talking to him, like I was
Speaker 2: spitting blood into his in his face. So nah, I said,
Speaker 2: I'm dying, bro, like I know, I'm dying. You have
Speaker 2: to get me to the hospital. So we went back
Speaker 2: to his car, jumped in his car, and as we
Speaker 2: jumped in his car, Old Mates followed us, and he
Speaker 2: kept ramming us the whole way as we're driving to
Speaker 2: Parmas a Medical Center. And then yeah, I thought, nah no,
Speaker 2: like it was hurting every little every breath you name it.
Speaker 2: Like the man of pain I went through was just excruciating.
Speaker 2: And I just told him, you know, like, nah, pull
Speaker 2: the brakes up, ram him, you know, so ram him back.
Speaker 2: I said, We've got to do something. So my mate's
Speaker 2: chucked it in reverse and we've rammed him and then
Speaker 2: he's taken off and gave us enough time to get
Speaker 2: to the medical center. And then as soon as we
Speaker 2: got there, he's jumped out emergency button on the wall.
Speaker 2: They've all run out, and I had to get help
Speaker 2: out into the stretcher and the ambulance rocked up. I
Speaker 2: was just yeah, I was I've never been in that
Speaker 2: much pain in my life. And then the paramedics rocked up,
Speaker 2: chucked me in the back, cud all my clothes off,
Speaker 2: strapped me to the machines, and then we've just paced it,
Speaker 2: you know, and they're like even there's one bloke driving,
Speaker 2: one bloke in the back with me, and he even
Speaker 2: said straight out to I remember him talking to the driving.
Speaker 2: He's like, you need to get there, you need to hurry,
Speaker 2: you need to push it. You know, we're losing, we're
Speaker 2: losing him. And he goes, I need to do it now,
Speaker 2: I need to do an a we haven't got any time,
Speaker 2: and he's like, yep, just do it, buff and I
Speaker 2: was gone, you know, and that's all I remember. And
Speaker 2: I woke up and in the emergency department and were waiting,
Speaker 2: like getting rushed down to surgery, and there was two
Speaker 2: detectives from Major Crimes are standing over there, and they're like, oh, Shannon, Shannon,
Speaker 2: you know, like do you want to do you want
Speaker 2: to tell us? Tell us who did it? Tell us
Speaker 2: who did it? And I said, I still remember, I
Speaker 2: was like, no, go get fucked.
Speaker 1: I heard that comment before.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was like, you know, straight out, I was like,
Speaker 2: get fuck your dogs, you know. And then they're like,
Speaker 2: don't you want to know don't you want to justice?
Speaker 2: Like your pop not going to survive this accident, you know,
Speaker 2: like this you're probably going to die, Like wouldn't you
Speaker 2: want the person who'd done this, you know, getting getting
Speaker 2: getting thrown in jail? And I was like, fuck off
Speaker 2: your dogs, you know, and so yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: and yeah, no bloody. They rushed me to the hospital. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then when I woke up, I woke up I
Speaker 2: was in a crama, fighting for my life. I woke
Speaker 2: up with getting chebes pulled out of my throat and
Speaker 2: seven broken or broken to every rib and my left
Speaker 2: side my body, both my shoulder blades, tore my tendons
Speaker 2: and my shoulders and my knee. Yeah yeah you got
Speaker 2: me good. You know, three my ribs went through my lungs.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and then yeah, that I was. I woke
Speaker 2: up an ICU and then we thought it was over.
Speaker 2: You know, if the doctor's surgeon's like, no, now we
Speaker 2: got it, it's all good, you'd be good to go.
Speaker 2: And I was in there for another three or four
Speaker 2: days before they took me down to recovery would And
Speaker 2: then that night they took me down. I went into
Speaker 2: shock again, and just lucky, about eleven o'clock at night,
Speaker 2: one of the nurses were coming to do the ops,
Speaker 2: and I woke up about ten o'clock because I was
Speaker 2: feeling sick. I thought this is weird, you know, And
Speaker 2: when they've come in to do the ops, they're like, oh, hey,
Speaker 2: are you going to started talking and then they sat there. Lucky,
Speaker 2: they sat there for about ten minutes having he under me,
Speaker 2: and I just went into shock and I couldn't breathe.
Speaker 2: And then they've gone up hit the emergency button on
Speaker 2: the wall, and I remember still as soon as they
Speaker 2: hit that button on the wall, all the lights in
Speaker 2: that whole floor went off except for the lift, the
Speaker 2: one to the lift where the surgeon come to my room.
Speaker 2: And then they ran in. There was just surgeons and
Speaker 2: nurses everywhere, and they're just like no, what he's lost.
Speaker 2: I lost about four and a half liters of blood
Speaker 2: and they don't know where else I was bleeding internally,
Speaker 2: and they didn't know where I was bleeding from, and
Speaker 2: so they started rushing me down to surgery and then yeah,
Speaker 2: that was it. They threw me on the theater and
Speaker 2: I was out, and then I woke up with even
Speaker 2: more tubes hanging out of me. And then yeah, there
Speaker 2: was a lengthy recovery that one too, Yeah, with the
Speaker 2: staples and all that all around the halfway around my body,
Speaker 2: our nitches. In the hospital, I think I was in
Speaker 2: there for about five five weeks.
Speaker 1: For five weeks, yeah, all right, and that's a precursor
Speaker 1: to what ended up doing ten years, yeah, in prison.
Speaker 1: So what you get out of the hospital.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So when I got out of hospital, I
Speaker 2: finally got discharged from hospital. We went back to my
Speaker 2: house and I think I was only there for about
Speaker 2: a day, maybe two days, and one I got a message,
Speaker 2: an actual message from one of my nephews saying, well,
Speaker 2: as I've got to tell you something, and I was like,
Speaker 2: what's that And he's like the bloke who ran you over?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: We just went around to his house. He asked for
Speaker 2: you know, like to get a heap of boys and
Speaker 2: come around there and have a meeting. And I was like, oh, eh,
Speaker 2: and yeah, what's that? So what you know, He's like yeah,
Speaker 2: and there was about you like he's offering to pay
Speaker 2: him in drugs, Yeah, to run through your house and
Speaker 2: get your way your bed ridden you know.
Speaker 1: Oh so it is still after yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh really, and he's like yeah,
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, I haven't got any weapons yet.
Speaker 2: You know, I could barely move. So what I did, right,
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, I'm going to go and purchase
Speaker 2: some machetes and axes and keep them on my bed
Speaker 2: so if anybody runs through, I'm just going to attack them,
Speaker 2: you know, like we'll do what I can. And so
Speaker 2: we did that. We ended up doing that and went back.
Speaker 2: When we got back home, you know, I took on
Speaker 2: my back nighttime, so I took my pain meds and
Speaker 2: I told everyone, told my housemate, and I said, no,
Speaker 2: I'm going to sleep now. So as I've gone to sleep,
Speaker 2: my housemates caught up a few of his mates who's
Speaker 2: rocked up because they thought these fellows were going to
Speaker 2: run through the house and they've all gotten drunk, and
Speaker 2: they thought it was a good idea to go grab
Speaker 2: all those weapons I just purchased with my own card
Speaker 2: to go run through their work shed first and attack them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: So because I purchased it with my own card, that's
Speaker 2: what that's where the detectives in Darwin linked me to
Speaker 2: it and set and charge me with the attempted murder,
Speaker 2: saying that I did.
Speaker 1: It right, and so that that crew that came from
Speaker 1: your place, that took the weapons from your place, went
Speaker 1: to the workshop or wherever yeah dude was hanging out
Speaker 1: and went to do him over or bash him or what.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Well they absolutely destroyed one of the
Speaker 2: fellows that was in there, like cut a bit of
Speaker 2: his vertebrae of unless I think he lost Nellie Nelly
Speaker 2: lost all every single finger, fractured, skull, brain injuries. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they really messed him up. And you know, the reason
Speaker 2: why I purchased those weapons with my card was simple
Speaker 2: fact that I knew that if I tried hiding the
Speaker 2: fact that I was buying those weapons, then detectives up
Speaker 2: there would have been like, well, no, we're gonna We're
Speaker 2: going to charge him with murder.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I know you end up pleading pleading
Speaker 1: guilty to the offense. So what I picked up in
Speaker 1: what it's been reported in the media reckless endangering serious
Speaker 1: harm and unlawful entry with intent to assault armed. So
Speaker 1: it was like a conspiracy that you're you're involved in. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because you've purchased purchased the weapons a couple of things,
Speaker 1: And we had had a chat the other day and
Speaker 1: you said, you know, this is how am I again
Speaker 1: to defend that. If I explained the story you've just
Speaker 1: explained here, and you rock up the court with your taboos,
Speaker 1: you're the sergeant and the arms, it's going to be
Speaker 1: a pretty hard case to argue. So you you made
Speaker 1: the decision to plead guilty to it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well so under the Northern Territory Mandatory Sentencing Acts,
Speaker 2: if I was to get found guilty on having any
Speaker 2: knowledge that the crime had been committed and didn't notify
Speaker 2: the police, yeah, I would have got twenty five years
Speaker 2: in prison. Automatically. I could not fight or argue that
Speaker 2: at all. And one of my mates actually got that
Speaker 2: like four or five years before. So the only way
Speaker 2: I could have avoided that was by pleading guilty to it.
Speaker 2: So I had to plead guilty to that crime even
Speaker 2: though I didn't know that. I didn't even know that
Speaker 2: them fella's done that to two days after it happened,
Speaker 2: and then before I knew it does flash bombs going
Speaker 2: off inside my house, lasers all over me, and I'm
Speaker 2: getting dragged out, zip tied by TRG and tell.
Speaker 1: Us about that. So you're recovering at home and then yeah,
Speaker 1: early hours of the morning or yeah.
Speaker 2: It was like I think it was like five in
Speaker 2: the morning. They've said little explosives up to our glass door.
Speaker 2: Wasn't just like it was yeah, full like sa s
Speaker 2: his bank bang, and it was just I still remember
Speaker 2: like the flash bombs going off, and I was like
Speaker 2: I was just stunned, you know. And then as soon
Speaker 2: as my door got kicked open, you know, I just
Speaker 2: seen just green dots all over me and I just like,
Speaker 2: don't move. Dome Boom flipped me over, zip tied my legs,
Speaker 2: my ankles and my my wrists to the back and
Speaker 2: grabbed me by my my jip ties around my ankles
Speaker 2: and just dragged me cleaning out down the stairs out
Speaker 2: to the front before all my broken ribs, everything, and
Speaker 2: and I still remember it from TG had the barrel
Speaker 2: of his gun and he was hitting me in the
Speaker 2: head with it, and go, I did a fucking move.
Speaker 2: I did a fucking move, your dog and hitting me
Speaker 2: in the side of the head with it.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, how that make you feel? I think
Speaker 1: it's pretty obvious how it make make you feel the
Speaker 1: way that the way that you've relaid the story to
Speaker 1: me in regards to the offense, and it's what's been
Speaker 1: rapported in the media, because I was reading the media
Speaker 1: reports on them, and it's not this similar to what
Speaker 1: was reported in the fact. Sheepe for the core that
Speaker 1: you play the guilty. Couple of questions and just clarify
Speaker 1: this that the man that was attacked the night your
Speaker 1: crew went to get get him at the workshop, that
Speaker 1: wasn't the person that ran you over. How do you
Speaker 1: feel about that, like he's the wrong, wrong, wrong person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, to be honest, when you live that life,
Speaker 2: they're living in that house and you want that person
Speaker 2: that's in that house.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody's getting got okay.
Speaker 2: So and because of what happened, obviously his housemate that
Speaker 2: was in that house.
Speaker 1: That's the rules.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like, yeah, well he's he's a house mate,
Speaker 2: he's a friend of his. Yeah, so that's I'm guessing
Speaker 2: that's that's pretty much what happened. That's the reason why,
Speaker 2: you know, that's the reason.
Speaker 1: Why I suppose the flip to that is that, yeah,
Speaker 1: why he's caught up in what happened happened to him.
Speaker 1: You're also caught up because you're associated with the crew
Speaker 1: that have gone there, regardless of the fact that it
Speaker 1: wasn't your plan or it wasn't your idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly right, you know.
Speaker 1: And so so did you get to get BA? Was
Speaker 1: it straight to straight the prison?
Speaker 2: Straight to prison? No bail. I tried about four or
Speaker 2: five times just to get bail, and even told my
Speaker 2: lawyer and that what happened like, and he's like, oh,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't do a statement? I said, Well, no, I
Speaker 2: said one, I said, I said, how could I do
Speaker 2: a statement? I said, but I didn't even know who
Speaker 2: was involved or when it happened. And until two days after,
Speaker 2: I said, I still don't even know the full story.
Speaker 2: I wasn't there, you know, So how could I do
Speaker 2: a statement saying saying you know, like I was this person,
Speaker 2: that person, this person when I was at home in
Speaker 2: bed all night. Yeah, I wouldn't even know who did
Speaker 2: it anyway, you know, but I just told him no
Speaker 2: way in the world. You know, you're looking at life
Speaker 2: in prison. What are you going to do. Like I said,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to plead guilty, like it's I put
Speaker 2: myself to be honest, like I bought those weapons. If
Speaker 2: I never bought those weapons, that never were happen, it
Speaker 2: wouldn't have happened. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Do you look look the Shannon I'm talking to now,
Speaker 1: I'm not the Shandon back in those days. You look
Speaker 1: at that and go, okay, well, yeah, I was rolling
Speaker 1: the dice. I was playing, playing on the edge, and
Speaker 1: something was going to break eventually. Do you look at
Speaker 1: it that way when you look back at the life
Speaker 1: that you were living at the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well, when I look back at the life
Speaker 2: that I was living at the time, we definitely there
Speaker 2: some hairy situations and stuff like that. You know, I
Speaker 2: thought far outlight, either I'm going to get murdered or well,
Speaker 2: you know, like I'm going to go to jail for
Speaker 2: a long time for for it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So you know, we almost fulfill all the prophecies of
Speaker 1: you either end up dead or in jail, you for life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I almost did both, almost did life for both,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So yeah, and I look
Speaker 2: back at it now like I think that's just stupid,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely definitely
Speaker 2: look back at it now and thought far out load.
Speaker 2: But but at that time, you know, it was like
Speaker 2: even though you had that like feeling and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: you know, you just kept going, you know, like you
Speaker 2: just look fuck it.
Speaker 1: Well, the chat that we've had now, you've given us
Speaker 1: a good sense of what was going through your mind
Speaker 1: and that the attitude, and I thank you for your
Speaker 1: openness and in talking about okay, well this is the
Speaker 1: way I rolled, and this is this is the consequences
Speaker 1: of we'll take a break now. When we get back.
Speaker 1: In part two, we're going to talk about the time
Speaker 1: in jail and then was what was the watershed moment
Speaker 1: made you turn your life around and all the good
Speaker 1: work that you're doing now. So I apologize to anyone
Speaker 1: that's switching off after part one thinking what have we
Speaker 1: got here? Let me assure you. Shannon has turned his
Speaker 1: life around, and that's what we're going to explore, explore
Speaker 1: when we get back. And also about the violence that
Speaker 1: you experienced and dished out in prison and then when
Speaker 1: you decided just to make a change to your life
Speaker 1: and how that came about.
Speaker 2: So yeah, no worries.
Speaker 1: Okay, take a break.