Canberra bikie murder: Frederick Tuifua charged with the murder of Comanchero president Pitasoni Ulavalu
A 26-year-old man has been refused bail over the alleged murder of one of Australia’s most powerful bikies outside Kokomo’s nightclub in Canberra.
Canberra Star
Don't miss out on the headlines from Canberra Star. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Three arrested after top bikie’s alleged murder
- Sex scandal: Duntroon cadet dismissed after indecency verdict
- ‘Oh f**k, I shouldn’t have done that’: solider jailed over ‘king hit’
The man accused of stabbing and killing one of Australia’s most powerful bikies has fronted court charged with murder after a weeks-long police probe into the death.
Frederick Elijah Mercy Tuifua, 26, fronted the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with the murder of the Canberra chapter president of the Comanchero outlaw bikie gang, Pitasoni Ulavalu.
Police allege Tuifua, of Silverwater in western Sydney, was brandishing a knife during a brawl at Kokomo’s nightclub on Bunda St, Canberra, in the early hours of July 19 and stabbed Ulavalu in the neck.
He later bled to death on the footpath outside the nightclub.
Two other men, Matthew Kupu, 22, and Osaiasi Avanua Sydey Kupu, 23, appeared in court on Thursday morning charged with affray, and are accused of taking part in the bar fight, during which Ulavalu was stabbed in the neck.
Later, a legal aid lawyer representing the shot man, Maximilian Kurt Ellis Budack, appeared in court on his behalf.
The trio was arrested on Tuesday night, when they showed up at Calvary Hospital with Budack, who had been shot three times and who underwent life-saving surgery on Wednesday.
None of the men entered pleas, and none applied for bail, which Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker formally refused.
Budack, the court heard, remains in intensive care, and police continue to investigate his shooting.
Investigations into Ulavalu’s death continue.
A bystander has described the stabbing of Ulavalu as “a bar fight that got out of control” rather than a targeted killing and police on Wednesday changed tune, saying the killing of Mr Uluvalu was “not a gang on gang” attack.
None of the interstate trio are on ACT police lists of local bikie gang members and associates.
However, Ulavalu’s bail conditions, which were changed just days before he was killed, had prevented him from associating with Budack.
On Wednesday, ACT police superintendent Scott Moller said: “We have been looking at a group of men for some time, and the opportunity at the hospital presented itself and (Tuifua) was arrested.”
On Thursday, police were searching Haig Park, just north of the city, as part of the investigation into Ulavalu’s killing.
All four men’s cases return to court on 25 August.
