Suspicious package sent to RAH where Vince Focarelli is being treated
UPDATED 6.45pm: The Royal Adelaide Hospital has reopened after a package addressed to shot bikie Vince Focarelli forced a closure.
BIKIE leader Vince Focarelli has survived a fourth attempt on his life - but his son Giovanni was shot dead in a ''targeted attack'' in Adelaide's north. Read on for the latest updates on this rapidly developing story.
UPDATED 6.45pm:
The Royal Adelaide Hospital has reopened after a package addressed to shot bikie Vince Focarelli forced the evacuation of the hospital's main foyer.
The package was intercepted by police, who had treated it as suspicious.
About 100 people were evacuated just before 5pm after the person who delivered the package to the hospital's information counter could not be found.
Police bomb squad experts were called to the RAH to examine the package.
UPDATED 3:30pm:
ATTORNEY-General John Rau wants greater consistency with the sentencing of bikies when they appear in court on violent crimes.
"I think everybody (the courts, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the police) would be served better by having more consistent rulings through the courts," he said today.
"But I am also aware that every single case is different and to apply a one size fits all penalty for every offence which has the label firearms is not going to do justice either."
Mr Rau has proposed a raft of legislation following Police Commissioner Mal Hyde's claims "patchy" court sentences were partly to blame for the rise in bikie violence.
Mr Rau blames the opposition for blocking a series of SAPOL approved legislation designed to help them fight the war against the bikies.
But Opposition legal spokesman Stephen Wade said the escalation of violence among the gangs was proof that the Government's strategy had failed.
"We need to use every law in the book to control these people," he said yesterday.
Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras QC said the Government, police and prosecutors were all "doing their best" in the war against organised crime, however it was time to approach the problem differently.
"What we've done up until now hasn't worked, what we've done up until now has produced a dead boy in the streets," he said.
"You've got to approach both the legislative and law enforcement problems with a bit of imagination."
He suggested future serious and organised crime legislation should redress the issue of gang membership and for legal authorities to stop focussing on individual offences.
"What we've neglected to understand and adapt into our policies and our legislation is the mere fact of membership of a criminal organisation facilitates those individuals in committing crimes in two ways - first it provides them with guns and secondly it virtually silences the witnesses who might give evidence against them through intimidation," he said.
"Why would we tolerate a group of people whose purpose is to commit serious offences under our very noses?"
Mr Pallaras said bikie related crime had escalated during his seven-year tenure and that the judicial system would struggle to cope with the volume of criminal cases being tried surrounding these offences in future.
"We may well find ourselves in the courtroom with 10, 15 or 20 defendants," he said.
He also said prosecutors reviewed any sentence a court imposed to determine if it was adequate and that police could contact the Office of the DPP to discuss sentencing concerns.
12:15 UPDATE:
SHOT bikie Vince Focarelli is undergoing surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his skull, according to his lawyer.
Stacey Carter, of Michael Woods and Associates, has told media outside the Royal Adelaide Hospital that Focarelli was shot four times in the ambush on Sunday night which killed his son, Giovanni.
Ms Carter said Focarelli was undergoing surgery to remove a bullet from his skull. She did not disclose where the other wounds were.
10:30 UPDATE:
LAWYERS have hit back at Police Commissioner Mal Hyde after he accused the courts of being soft on bikies and issuing lean sentences to violent offenders.
Mr Hyde yesterday said "patchy" court sentences were hindering police efforts to lock bikies away
Law Society SA President Ralph Bonig said the accusation was a "populist attack".
"This is not the first time the Police Commissioner has criticised sentences imposed by our courts," Mr Bonig said.
"This is nothing more than a populist attack on an easy target, which the statistics show is unjustified."
Mr Bonig said The Australian Bureau of Statistics found South Australia has the longest median aggregate jail term, of almost 5 years per sentence, in Australia.
"We also have the longest time per sentence spent in jail and the second highest proportional increase in offenders sentenced to prison in this country", Mr Bonig said.
"The Law Society objects strongly to such unjustified criticism of the Courts," Mr Bonig said.
10:30 UPDATE
DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras has rebutted Police Commissioner Mal Hyde's claim that patchy court sentencing is hindering attempts to halt bikie violence.
Mr Pallaras said the sentences imposed on bikies before the courts were not the "real problem" in tackling the violence.
"On occasions it may be," he told ABC Adelaide 891 Radio this morning.
"But you have to look at it case by case.
"If it really is a real standout poor decision, then we have the option of entering an appeal or seeking leave to appeal against a decision and getting it increased.
"But I must say, I don't think that is the real problem.
"I think the problem is the fact that guns exist and we don't do anything about it."
Mr Pallaras said the State Government needed to tackle outlaw motorcycle gangs from the foundation and make greater efforts to remove guns from the streets.
"What we need to do is get effective and have effective legal constraints on this sort of behaviour," he said.
"We need to attack the very foundation of the organisations.
"Any organisation...if they are organised and if they are associating partly or wholly for the reason of committing criminal offences, then that organisation ought to be outlawed and disbanded.
"The second thing I would do...is tackling the problem of handguns in the community."
9.30AM UPDATE
MARKED-man Vince Focarelli remains in the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a stable condition this morning but hospital staff are not holding their breath he will stay put.
A hospital spokesman said this morning Focarelli would ideally recover in hospital for some time, but whether he would follow those instructions was another matter entirely.
An update on his condition is expected this afternoon.
MIDNIGHT UPDATE
THE person who kills Vincenzo Focarelli can be the head of the state's newest bikie gang chapter, underworld figures have been told.
Police sources say their intelligence suggests the leadership of the South Australian chapter of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club is the prize for killing the renegade gang leader.
Focarelli survived a fourth attempt on his life on Sunday night, but lost his son Giovanni, 22, to an assassin's bullets in a suburban street ambush in Flame Ave, Dry Creek.
The theories on a motive range from a drug deal gone wrong to a trap for the man who has been the target of would-be killers for the past two years.
Despite his son's death, Focarelli has refused to tell police if he knew who was responsible for the attack.
Sources close to Adelaide's bikie underworld believe that Giovanni, who died on Prospect Rd in the back seat of a car as his father tried to rush him to hospital, is the victim of retribution from within the Comancheros, or of an attack by Hells Angels.
Vince Focarelli has dismissed claims of infighting and claims to be SA president of the Comancheros.
But lawyer Craig Caldicott and other sources said yesterday that he had been kicked out of the gang.
"He may call himself a Comanchero, he may even dress up in a Comanchero outfit; but I have it on a pretty good source that he's not a Comanchero," Mr Caldicott said.
"It could be (Comanchero retribution) that's just speculation."
A police source said Vince Focarelli's dumping as president and the spate of shootings had been initiated by interstate Comancheros, who stripped his tattoo parlour, Ink Central, of the club's paraphernalia amid claims he had siphoned off drug profits after his appointment early last year.
The interstate rivals of the Hells Angels want to maintain a presence in SA and are looking for a leader.
Police investigating previous assassination bids on Focarelli linked the attacks to both the Comancheros and the Hells Angels.
Giovanni Focarelli was the closest of his father's rapidly dwindling allies.
Members and associates of the New Boys street gang he formed when his ties with the Hells Angels were broken yesterday indicated they would seek retribution.
Posting a tribute message on the New BoyZ Support Crew Facebook page yesterday, a supporter warned that "no stone will go left unturned".
Focarelli was rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and for the second time in six weeks underwent surgery for gunshot wounds believed to be to a leg and the shoulder. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Police have been on high alert in recent weeks as they waited for the next violent chapter in the Focarelli saga.
They have rushed to his home several times in the past month when family members called for help.
Focarelli's wife is understood to have been constantly reporting noises around the house. Police who have attended the eastern-suburbs home have not found any trace of intruders.
Focarelli has three daughters, who attend an all-girls school, while his surviving son attends a prestigious private school and is a talented sportsman.
Police are keeping watch on the Ink Central tattoo parlour on Hindley St and STAR group officers were stationed at Adelaide Airport yesterday.
Police Commissioner Mal Hyde yesterday called for new laws and blamed lenient court sentences for the rise in bikie violence. He said the culture of a code of silence and violence within bikie groups had made current laws difficult to enforce.
"The reality is violence, a wall of silence and intimidation is all part of a bikie's persona ... it creates a great barrier (for police)," he said.
"When you have these offences happening in a way where you intimidate witnesses, it makes it much more difficult to legislate."
Mr Hyde said police were particularly concerned with two feuds engulfing bikie groups between Vince Focarelli and the Comancheros, and between the Finks and the Hells Angels following the shooting of former Finks member Mark Sandery's 11-year-old son.
"Their behaviour and resorting to violence to sort out the differences between them is a concern to us," he said. Police were "keeping an open mind" on the motive for the Dry Creek shooting.
"At this stage we are exploring all motives, including... tension within the Comancheros... another bikie group (or something else)," he said. "The circuit-breaker would be to apprehend those involved and put them before the courts."
6.30PM UPDATE
GIOVANNI Focarelli's lawyer Steve Georgiadis has told Channel Ten news that police are more likely to receive the family's co-operation in investigating the shooting if they showed more compassion.
"If officers show a lot more empathy, this is a grieving family, and if they show that they have some compassion towards that it certainly will go a long way in bringing the parties closer and possibly cooperating," he said.
"Like any family that has lost a loved one (Giovanni's family are) completely distraught. The life of young man has been taken away."
Mr Georgiadis told Channel Ten that Giovanni was a "a respectful, kind, caring and compassionate soul.
"He was an absolutely beautiful person and unfairly tarnished by the bikie reference," he said of Giovanni's connection to the Comanchero Motorcycle Club.
Mr Georgiadis had been acting for Giovanni in an alleged assault case.
But lawyer Stacey Carter has contacted Adelaidenow and said she represented the Focarelli family and Mr Georgiadis's comments were not authorised by Vince Focarelli.
''Mr Focarelli is currently mourning the death of his son, and if he is capable, he will make his own personal statement in due course,'' she said.
3.15PM UPDATE
STREET gang supporters of slain New Boys gang member Giovanni Focarelli have indicated they want to take revenge against his killers, posting a message on a Facebook site that "no stone will go left unturned".
The New BoyZ Support Crew Facebook site is one that Giovanni often contributed to and friends of the 22-year-old - who was ambushed with his father Vince Focarelli in a suburban Dry Creek street about 9.45pm last night - have started to pay tribute to the shooting victim.
The full message, posted about 2pm, reads: "Why do bad things happen to good people? No stone will go left unturned. RIP Giovanni".
The first tribute messages to the son of the former head of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club Adelaide chapter were posted on the site early yesterday morning.
3PM UPDATE
POLICE Commissioner Mal Hyde has called for new legislation and harsher court sentences to halt the rise in bikie violence.
Mr Hyde said the culture of violence and code of silence within bikie groups had made current legislation difficult to enforce.
"We are looking for new legislation to help us in the future," he said.
"We need legislation that can help us put them (bikies) before the courts and we need courts that can help us put them away.
"The reality is violence, a wall of silence and intimidation is all part of a bikie's persona ... it creates a great barrier (for police).
"When you have these offences happening in a way where you intimidate witnesses, it makes it much more difficult to legislate."
Mr Hyde said police needed more help from the courts to lock bikies away once they had been arrested.
"The courts are very patchy in terms of the significance of the sentences for firearms offences," he said.
"The use of firearms is a key part of the culture and personality of bikie groups. That's part of what we need to deal with.
"Every now and then you will see a reasonable sentence but more often you will see suspended sentences and good behaviour bonds. That doesn't take us very far at all to protecting the community."
Mr Hyde said police were particularly concerned with two streams of violence engulfing bikie groups in South Australia - the feud between Vince Focarelli and the Comancheros, and the feud between the Finks and Hells Angels following the shooting of Finks member Mark Sandery's 11-year-old son.
Mr Hyde said police were "keeping an open mind" on the motive for last night's shooting.
"At this stage we are exploring all motives, including whether or not it's ongoing tension within the Comancheros, whether it involves another bikie group (or something else)," he said.
"The circuit breaker (to end the violence) would be to apprehend those involved and put them before the courts."
12.45PM UPDATE
MURDERED former Comanchero bikie Giovanni Focarelli will be buried within 24 hours of the release of his body, as per Muslim custom, a court has heard.
Focarelli's friend and associate, Michael Sfyris, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court this morning.
He is jointly charged with Giovanni Focarelli and his father, Vince, with an alleged Melbourne Cup Day affray at the Highway Hotel on Anzac Highway.
AdelaideNow understands the men are no longer members of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang, and have not been for about a month. Last week, Sfyris lodged an application with the court, seeking to vary his bail conditions.
Sfyris - manager of the Ink Central tattoo parlour on Hindley St - wanted the court to delete a clause that banned him from speaking with Giovanni Focarelli, who was an employee.
Today, Steven Georgiadis, for Sfyris, said his client no longer pursued that application.
"Unfortunately, Giovanni Focarelli has passed away," he said. "In that regard, we are wondering if, with all respect, this court will entertain an application to vary Mr Sfyris' bail to allow him to attend the funeral."
He said no funeral arrangements had yet been made. "In saying that, we understand that it is traditional in the Muslim culture that the funeral take place within 24 hours (of death)," he said.
"We're not sure whether police are releasing the body or not."
Magistrate Paul Foley said the request "sounded reasonable".
However, Emmanuel Athans, prosecuting, opposed the application. "I cannot agree to a request to attend a funeral while not knowing how long it will be, what date it will take place, where it will be held and who else will be attending," he said.
Mr Georgiadis said his client only required permission to attend the mosque, and would continue to abide by the conditions of his bail. "One of the current bail conditions is that he is not allowed to associate with Vince Focarelli," he said.
"We want to avoid an interpretation issue as to what might - in the eyes of police - constitute 'assocation' at a funeral." Mr Foley said he would consider the application again once arrangements had been made for the funeral.
He gave Sfyris permission to have the matter called on at short notice, agreeing to make himself available to hear it. Sfyris did not comment as he left court.
12:15PM UPDATE
RESIDENTS of Flame Ave, Dry Creek, say they heard up to five 'pops' in quick succession about 9pm.
The arrival of police revealed the sounds' significance. Resident of 13 years Peter Frost said he heard five quick shots. "I wasn't sure if it was gunshots or what it was," he said.
"It was like pop, pop, pop, pop... I just though it was fireworks or something. "From what I gathered later on, it (happened) down the end of the street, near the intersection (of Flame Ave and Churchill Rd North)."
Mr Frost said police were at the scene until about 4am and said they spoke to him several times.
"They said there had been a shooting, a murder," he said. "It's not good in our neighbourhood." Detectives and STAR Group officers scoured Flame Ave and a neighbouring reserve for clues.
Officers searched through bins and on the roof of a rugby union clubhouse and used metal detectors. Sandra Basilico said she heard four shots out the front of her house before hearing a car speed off. Her son, Steven, 15, said the ordeal was "frightening".
"It sounded like four gun shots then I heard someone scream," he said. "It was pretty scary. We just went inside and sat tight. It was pretty frightening...I didn't come outside." Steve Muller said he heard the gun shots and it then went "dead quiet" until police arrived about half an hour to 45 minutes later.
"These bikies, let them do what they want to do but do it anywhere else but our streets, it's rubbish," he said.
"They are making themselves out to be gansters and heroes ... it's not on.
"Go out in the middle of nowhere and knock each other off but don't do it in our streets, it's silly, there are kids in the street."
11:45AM UPDATE
ESCALATION of violence among outlaw crime gangs shows anti-bikie moves have failed, the Opposition says.
The State Government is currently working on the second phase of its anti-association laws after the High Court ruled elements of its initial push unlawful.
The first phase of anti-bikie laws, penned by former attorney-general Michael Atkinson, were found to undermine the independence of the courts in a split decision.
Attorney-General John Rau is now working on a new package to be presented in Parliament earlier this year.
Changes include giving the court power to "declare" a gang a criminal organisation, based on evidence supplied by police.
Control orders could then be issued against members, banning them from associating.
Opposition justice spokesman Stephen Wade today said the Government had talked tough but failed to deliver effective measures for eradicating outlaw gangs.
"Labor's hapless tough talking on bikies has made it the best recruitment agent the gangs have ever had," Mr Wade said.
"Labor's fruitless tough talking has elevated outlaw leaders like Vincenzo Focarelli to rock star status.
"New laws will only ever reinforce well-established laws and policing practice. We need aggressive, targeted law enforcement against known criminals."
Mr Wade said the Government and police needed to make use of existing laws including road traffic controls, public safety orders and financial reporting requirements to deliver convictions.
"Labor has lost court challenges, lost valuable time and lost control. The gangs have been emboldened and have grown," he said.
Mr Wade said the Government's pledge to bulldoze bikie fortresses had not resulted in any demolitions.
AdelaideNow is seeking comment from Mr Rau.
9AM UPDATE
BIKIE lawyer Craig Caldicott told ABC Radio this morning that Focarelli had alienated large sections of the bikie community.
"I've only obtained information from the media and from other people that indicate the father had a falling out with a member of the Hell's Angels on a personal level," he said.
"They had been friends and suddenly there was a falling out.
"Out of the genesis from that, Focarelli appeared to try and protect himself and form the New Boys then tried to brand himself a Comanchero - and has managed to alienate large sections of the bikies fraternity."
Mr Caldicott said it appeared that Focarelli had also made enemies with the Comancheros - and said he was not a member of the club despite claiming its presidency.
"No he isn't," Mr Caldicott said when asked if Focarelli was a member of the Comanchero gang.
"(His presidency) is a self-appointed title as far as I'm aware."
Despite the rift between rival bikie gangs, Mr Caldicott speculated that the shooting may have been over a drug deal.
"The fact that it was at an oval at Dry Creek would tend to suggest it being a drug deal going wrong," Mr Caldicott said.
"It may not have been necessarily anything to do with bikies, rather other people that Mr Focarelli has managed to alienate over the years."
EARLIER
BIKIE leader Vince Focarelli has refused to tell police who shot and killed his son Giovanni in a ''targeted attack'' in Adelaide's north last night.
Police at the scene confirmed that Giovanni's body was in the back seat of a car on Prospect Rd, just outside Prospect Village Shopping Centre.
Police believe Focarelli - the self-proclaimed leader of the Comanchero gang's SA chapter - and his son had been shot in a ''planned'' attack at Flame Ave, Dry Creek.
Police have cordoned off the street and are doorknocking residents.
Bleeding from up to four bullet wounds, Focarelli bundled his son, 22, into his Ford sedan and drove down Prospect Rd where he flagged down a police patrol for help.
Detective Superintendent Grant Moyle said police had spoken to Focarelli at the Royal Adelaide Hospital but ''he has declined to provide us with any information that might assist us in identifying the offender''.
''I would suggest it was a very planned and targeted attack,'' he said.
''We have a scene at Dry Creek where we believe the shooting did take place.
''We believe Mr Focarelli was driving from there down Prospect Rd where he has come across a patrol and has stopped in front of that and sought assistance.''
Det Supt Moyle could not say whether Giovanni died at the scene of the shooting or if he was alive when his father sought police help.
Vince Focarelli had boasted only weeks ago that he was "the only man on the planet with nine lives".
Ten police vehicles sealed off Prospect Rd within minutes of the first call for an ambulance about 9pm.
A witness said an ambulance officer had told them that whoever was responsible for the shooting was still on the loose.
A blue sedan with West Australian registration plates was parked on Prospect Rd with its headlights and hazard lights on.
A group of people who arrived at the scene at 9.35pm had to be restrained by police from entering the crime scene. One woman had to be tackled by three officers.
Minutes earlier, paramedics had gathered around the rear of the vehicle and were believed to be checking a body for signs of life.
A nearby Prospect Rd resident said: "I heard a loud noise. It was a strange sound. I came down and there were police already here. As I got here, they rushed someone from the car to the ambulance."
Police were searching the immediate area around the car for evidence.
Det Supt Moyle stopped short of calling the latest shooting a bikie war but said police were concerned the situation could escalate.
After a court appearance earlier this month, Vince Focarelli bragged on Facebook that he "feels like a rock star" from all the media attention generated by his narrow escapes.
It was posted on December 16, the day after surviving his third assassination attempt after being shot in the leg at Munno Para West.
Giovanni, in his early 20s, was stabbed in the stomach and chest outside his father's Hindley Street tattoo parlour Ink Central on May 22, 2010.
Vince, whose alleged associates engaged in a gunfight at a North Adelaide cafe, broke his silence to counter rumours that the Comanchero Motorcycle Club is plagued by infighting.
In a statement signed by him and released by him earlier this month, he called for privacy.
"Mr Focarelli denies there is any disharmony or in-house fighting within the Comanchero Motorcycle Club," the statement said.