Hells Angels Thomastown clubhouse a place of untold violence
Nestled in a quiet industrial estate, the Hells Angels Thomastown clubhouse has been the focus of intense law enforcement interest for more than two decades. Now police suspect bikie apprentice Kerry Giakoumis walked in one day and was carried out the next.
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There could be few worse places to find yourself an unwelcome guest.
The Hells Angels’ Thomastown clubhouse – home of the feared Nomads division of the gang – is a place of, literally, untold violence.
Nestled in a quiet industrial estate, it has been the focus of intense law enforcement interest for more than two decades.
It has been the scene of torture, kidnap ordeals, vicious bashings and, police believe, the conspiracy behind a notorious murder.
Now, homicide squad investigators believe another chapter in its grim history was written in the cold early morning of June 10.
Kerry Giakoumis, 29, was tough enough to be a Hells Angels prospect – a kind of apprentice bikie – with the North Crew chapter in Adelaide.
But, probably outnumbered and with his guard down, Giakoumis wouldn’t have had much chance inside the infamous Nomad stronghold in Lipton Drive.
He would have walked in, past the picket fence erected with heavy-handed irony after organised crime detectives tore down fortifications in 2013.
But, most likely, Giakoumis would have been carried out, after a dispute played out in brutal fashion, possibly linked to internal club ructions which may run along state lines.
Giakoumis had driven to Melbourne days earlier with two other North Crew members, one believed to be a senior figure in the outfit.
The young concreter, who wanted to work in Victoria, obviously held no concerns about his future, allowing his mother to book him a flight home.
Giakoumis was well-liked by his South Australian comrades and had years of involvement with them.
Police know he was accompanied to the Thomastown clubhouse by several bikies after visiting an associate’s apartment in Richmond.
From there, things are hazy.
Those who were there – even if uninvolved – were never about to call Crime Stoppers about what they saw.
Gangs like the Mongols and Comanchero might grab more headlines these days but the Angels remain formidable and ruthless OMCG players.
Anyone from within who talks out of line knows of the grave risks.
It was left to Giakoumis’ worried mother to make a missing-person report about his not making the flight home and the ominous lack of contact.
The Richmond property, another associate’s CBD apartment and the Lipton Drive clubhouse were later the subject of extensive forensic examination as part of an intensifying homicide inquiry.
Giakoumis’ phone and bank accounts remain inactive but police were later to indicate there was lingering rancour among some Angels about what had transpired.
The Nomads are regarded as an enforcement arm of Melbourne’s Hells Angels and Giakoumis is not the first insider believed to have come unstuck at their base.
Terence Tognolini was a leading Nomad light, until other HA’s heard of his fondness for drugging young girls and taking sexual advantage of them.
In 2007, unaware of what was coming, he was summoned to Lipton Drive where he was bashed, leaving bruises that would last for months.
A tattooist obscured his Hells Angels branding before he was rolled into the street in a wheelbarrow and tipped out.
His brother was reportedly contacted and told to “come and pick up your trash.”
Eight years before his expulsion, Tognolini was believed to have been a player in another brutal episode with suspected Lipton Drive links.
Vicki Jacobs was shot dead as she slept in her Bendigo home, her young son Ben beside her.
Police were later to investigate whether a party was held at Lipton Drive at the same time as the murder unfolded.
Jacobs had given evidence against her former partner, Gerald Preston, who had carried out the 1996 contract killing of two men in Adelaide on behalf of the Angels.
One theory is that Tognolini organised the murder of Jacobs as a favour for Preston, who could clearly cause major drama if he ever decided to open up to police.
A month after the Bendigo atrocity, police made it clear what they were thinking.
Officers bulldozed their way into the Lipton Drive HQ, seizing a sawn-off shotgun, a bulletproof vest, documents and three motorcycles.
Then-crime squads boss Commander Rod Lambert said investigators were looking for weapons or documents that could link the gang to the Jacobs murder.
But none of that changed the approach at Lipton Drive.
In 2005, Brendan Schievella was dragged out of The Rue Bar in Ivanhoe by three men in HA apparel, one of whom was sergeant-at-arms Paul Peterson.
Schievella was bashed constantly as the group hauled him to a vehicle in a nearby car park – briefly dangling him upside down from an eight-metre walkway – before making the trip to Lipton Drive.
Police would allege Schievella was held there and tortured for up to five hours.
A mate later drove him to a hospital where he was found with a partially amputated toe, the legacy of some crude boltcutter surgery.
He also had a broken nose, severe bruising and swelling to the face, head, back and torso.
Schievella would later decline to share the details with investigators.
Four years later, young German tourist Faisal Aakbari suffered a similar ordeal when he made the uber-foolish mistake of telling gang members at a CBD strip club that he was an Angel back home.
The 18-year-old was offered a friendly invitation back to Lipton Drive, where his knowledge was put to the test and his holiday turned into a nightmare.
Aakbari was shown pictures of HA’s from Germany, none of whom he was able to recognise.
Notorious crime family figure Ali Chaouk, then an associate of the Angels, and another man spent hours flogging the tourist with a baseball bat.
Chaouk – now in jail for a gangland murder – shoved a pole in Aakbari’s mouth, damaging his teeth, and kicked him in the groin and chest.
He was later dumped miles away, deeply traumatised but at least avoiding the fate of Kerry Giakoumis.
Homicide Squad Detective Jason Poulton, who is leading the Giakoumis inquiry, last month spoke of the toll on those close to him and the individuals who might be able to give them justice.
“His family are extremely traumatised. They’re looking for answers and there will be people within the Hells Angels community who can provide those answers.
“All the family has at the moment is silence.”
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