Shane Simpson, guns: Man claims shock video sucked him into underworld gun dealing
A Port Kembla firearms dealer who trafficked hundreds of guns on the black market has told a court he was ‘forced’ into the sophisticated racket after a European man showed him a graphic video of a person being shot in the head.
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A Port Kembla firearms dealer who trafficked hundreds of guns on the black market has told a court he was ‘forced’ into the sophisticated racket after a European man showed him a graphic video of a person being shot in the head with a rifle he had partly assisted in assembling.
Shane James Simpson has admitted to running an illegal gun dealing operation from his Wentworth Street shop, Simpson Sports, for six years before police swooped on him in an early morning raid on April 10, 2019.
Simpson has been linked to 276 black market pistols, after detectives spent months searching through years worth of dodgy NSW Firearms Registry records.
The 48-year-old father-of-three faced Wollongong District Court on Thursday, where he detailed how he first became involved in the supply of the illegal firearms, and how he “couldn’t get out”, receiving multiple threats against himself and his wife.
On Thursday, he claimed an unknown man began making regular trips to his shop in 2012, buying hunting gear and accessories.
“He then asked me if there was any chance I could get him air rifle pellets for his grandfather,” Simpson told the court.
“He seemed quite reasonable I sold him a tin of pellets without checking (for a) licence.”
On a later visit the man brought in a rifle bolt which was in two pieces, and asked Simpson to reassemble it for him. He told the court he did so, again without checking if he had a firearms licence, gave it back, and never saw the man again.
Months later around Christmas, another man, which Simpson said “looked European”, came into the shop and showed him a video. In giving evidence, Simpson’s voice shook as he described what he saw.
“The gentleman came in and showed me a video on his phone of a particular cut down firearm with a bolt that I recognised that I had reassembled,” he said.
“The video showed the barrel being pushed to the back of someone’s neck and the trigger being pulled … The firearm went off, everything. They used that firearm to actually shoot someone.”
At the end of the video, the man said to Simpson “we’ll be in touch”.
Simpson’s six years of illegal firearm supply began just six weeks later, when he claimed he received a handwritten letter that read “you know what we’re capable of. We know you have a wife. We want hand guns.”
When asked by Crown Prosecutor Gabrielle Steedman why he didn’t immediately go to police, Simpson said he considered it, but was worried about the safety of his family.
“I’d seen the video … Seeing the bolt being used for what it was used for was enough for me to be quite concerned,” he said.
Following the letter, Simpson claimed he started receiving phone calls at his shop from unknown people, who told him to leave various guns in a one-way street behind an abandoned shop across the road.
Before dropping them off, he claimed he’d use an angle grinder to remove the serial numbers, in an effort to hide his involvement.
“I didn’t know who they were going to. I didn’t give them to anyone. I placed them in a bag and put them on the ground,” he said.
Simpson told the court when he dropped off the firearms he would find a bag of cash in the same spot. He said an amount for the guns was never agreed upon, and the amount left for him was often minimal, and only enough to purchase second-hand guns.
Prosecutor Steedman asked Simpson why he didn’t just stop supplying the guns, or contact police, especially considering he was in financial trouble at the time and feared for his family’s safety. In response, he told the court he was “naive” and “just hoped the phone calls would stop”.
The court heard he contemplated suicide and that toward the end of his tenure with the underworld, he would only partially grind off gun serial numbers, somewhat hoping he would get caught.
Between February 2013 and April 2019, Simpson supplied more than 260 firearms, only 10 of which have been recovered by police and all were found at active crimes scenes, according to court documents.
The most high-profile discovery was a Glock 17A pistol allegedly used in a drive-by shooting at Greystanes last February and again in a fatal bikie shooting at Doonside in May.
In January, Simpson pleaded guilty to seven ongoing gun supply charges representing each year his operation was active.
His sentencing hearing before Judge Andrew Haesler will resume in July.