Deadline: Financial ruin, assault not enough to see member expelled from Melbourne Club
They look out for their own at the Melbourne Club — not even wife-bashing and controversial business activities can get a member expelled.
Police & Courts
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Mark Buttler and Andrew Rule with the latest crime buzz.
Stick around, old chap!
The exclusive Melbourne Club has rejected a push to expel a member facing financial ruin who once pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman.
Some time ago, the partner-beating toff found the possibility of things getting physical a little less appealing when he was pursued by a prominent underworld figure over his financial affairs.
That persuasive individual had been engaged to mediate by a creditor in one of the businessman’s failed business ventures, after the investor ran out of options to retrieve his money.
Deadline has been told management of the Melbourne Club met over the individual’s club membership after others questioned whether his values were in line with those of “The Club”.
It was instigated when the member was featured in club marketing materials at the same time he was being investigated by ASIC and his business partner was banned from being a company director for several years over a failed construction venture.
The man at the centre of the complaint has also previously pleaded guilty in court to attacking his former partner, injuring her.
He damaged her personal property during his rage and was fined and put on a good behaviour bond.
The man is a second-generation club member, as the son of a successful and wealthy business tycoon.
But his recent past has been peppered with controversial business activities which have left behind some unhappy people.
The Melbourne Club had no comment when approached by the Herald Sun.
“The club doesn’t talk to the media,” said someone who answered the phone.
The men-only Collins St enclave has been a Melbourne establishment fixture since 1838.
Members have included prime ministers, business titans, top police, military figures, judges and governors-general.
George Brown’s ghost haunts racing
The Mounties always get their man. Now the New South Wales police have taken up that novel approach to law enforcement.
Overturning a policy of looking the other way established over the entire 20th century, a new generation of Sydneyside cops is having a long, hard look at the role of prominent racing identities in the death of Sydney horse trainer George Brown before the Fine Cotton ring-in scandal in 1984.
Racing circles north of the Murray are buzzing with talk that a dogged detective has been tracing survivors of the era who might throw light on the torture and killing of Brown shortly after he refused to pull off one of a series of “ring ins” that happened in Sydney and Brisbane.
With the death of “Big Bill” Waterhouse at 97 in 2019 and the natural attrition of others, there are now few people with information that could finally put the perpetrators in the dock.
Of particular interest to the new breed of police are people who worked for certain bookmakers at the time. One of them has been in hospital recently with serious health problems.
The ailing bagman’s henchman and his wife were once close to racing identities whose names have constantly been whispered in connection with George Brown and the ring-in rorts linked to his death.
Police wonder if they are now not quite so close.
Roberta goes risque
Roberta Williams has flagged a career change as she prepares to get her gear off for OnlyFans.
Williams bobbed up on Instagram this week wearing a police hat and barely anything else, blurring thankfully preserving her modesty.
“I thought I’d go for a career change. Does anyone know if Purana is recruiting?” she pondered.
The Purana taskforce, a burr in Williams’ saddle for many years, no longer exists but it would certainly make a nice change from her latest unsuccessful foray into the world of crime.
Williams last week narrowly avoided a jail stretch for blackmail and recklessly causing serious injury to her former TV producer Ryan Naumenko.
On the OMCG catwalk
The Nomads joined the OMCG post-arrest attire promotion circuit this week as detectives from the Echo and VIPER taskforces went about their work.
A member made sure he was marched to a police car while rocking a fetching black top.
One investigator brought out a striking vest, as might be worn by members out to make an impression with those needing a little persuasion.
Members of the Mongols and Comanchero have previously looked the goods in club merch after police clamped on the bracelets.
Help maintain the Rayne
Rayne is a dog with much important work left to do, but cancer is threatening that.
The five-year-old labrador-German shorthaired pointer cross is a certified cadaver dog attached to Search and Rescue Dogs Australia.
But, some months ago, Rayne’s owner Julie Cowan found a pea-sized lump which turned out to be a tumour.
Chemotherapy seemed to do the trick but another lump has been found in a lymph node.
Rayne is now looking at the prospect of more prolonged and expensive treatment, a deeply distressing experience for Julie.
One of her SARDA colleagues Aleks Grzywinska has set up a Go Fund Me page in the hope the public can help ease the burden.
The address is https://gofund.me/6b387644.
Restaurateur charged with Nazi sign at pro-Palestinian rally
A celebrated restaurateur is the man charged with holding up a Nazi swastika sign at Sunday’s pro-Palestinian rally in Hyde Park.
Police defend aggressive actions in Broadmeadows arrest
Police have been captured on camera kneeling on a man who they allege was resisting arrest after punching an officer in the face in Melbourne’s north.