Crown closes case over Bandido shooting, closing arguments to begin

The father of a Brisbane man who was shot during a meeting with two alleged Bandido bikie associates has told a court his son told him he was going to shoot someone who assaulted him.

The father of a Brisbane man who was shot during a meeting with two alleged Bandido bikie associates has told a court his son told him he was going to shoot someone who assaulted him.

Sean Brian Irwin and Kenneth James Whittaker have pleaded not guilty in Brisbane District Court to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm Ashley White in 2019.

On Friday the two alleged Bandidos bikie associates each told the court they had chosen not to give evidence or call witnesses in their trial.

The Crown closed its case on the second day of the Brisbane trial, after prosecutor Michael Gawrych read out a series of agreed admissions of evidence to the jury.

It is alleged that on July 13, 2019, Mr White, then 37, was shot in the shoulder when he and his friend Joshua Smith went to a meeting with Irwin and Whittaker at Samsonvale, in the Moreton Bay region.

“Mr White and Mr Smith and the defendants Kenneth Whittaker and Sean Irwin all knew one another and this stemmed from their association within the Bandidos motorcycle group,’’ Mr Gawrych said in his opening.

The court heard evidence that on July 11, 2019, Mr White had been bashed by an alleged Bandidos member known as “Andy the Candyman’’ and two other unknown men, over an unpaid drug debt.

Mr Gawrych said the evidence would be that two days later, Mr Whittaker, Mr Irwin, Mr White and Mr Smith met at Samsonvale, where Mr Whittaker produced a hand gun.

Mr Gawrych said in his Crown opening that the jury would hear that Mr Whittaker accused Mr White and Mr Smith of being dogs and accused Mr White of stealing a gun from Mr Smith and using it to pay for drugs.

Under cross-examination Mr White denied he took a gun to the meeting as part of a failed retribution plot against a drug dealer who had violently beaten him over a drug debt days earlier.

Mr White also said he could not recall that earlier on the day that he was shot, that he left home telling his parents that he was going to shoot the person who had assaulted him.

On Friday, Mr Whittaker’s defence counsel, Kim Bryson, put to Mr White’s father, Richard White, that on the morning of July 13, 2019, his son had been agitated and behaving aggressively.

Mr White senior agreed.

“He told you he was going to shoot the person who bashed him?’ Ms Bryson asked, and Mr White said “yes’’.

Mr White said he did not see his son with a gun.

Mr White also agreed that when he saw his son a couple of days later he saw he had an injury to his shoulder and when he offered to take him to hospital his son did not want to go.

He also agreed that when his son later went to Caboolture Hospital he heard him tell staff he had been shot in an accident.

Richard White also agreed that he had previously bailed out his son Ashley paid what he believed were his son’s drug debts and had spent much of his savings giving Ashley money to pay back other people.

He also agreed when Ms Bryson put to him that his son had lied to his face and taken advantage of him by hiding ammunition in his house.

He also agreed with Ms Bryson that he had been a victim of a home invasion by Joshua Smith.

Judge Leanne Clare told the jury closing arguments by the Crown and defence counsel would begin on Monday.