Deadline: Forgotten shooting of belligerent bikie Shane Bowden
It was big news when bikie Shane Bowden was blown away, but what’s almost forgotten is that a bullet was fired into his leg just months earlier.
Police & Courts
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Melbourne’s top crime writers Mark Buttler and Andrew Rule with the latest scallywag scuttlebutt.
CLOCK TICKS ON BOWDEN SHOOTING
The shooting of Shane Bowden continues to generate murmurings in the Melbourne underworld. Both shootings, in fact.
It will be a year next month since the musclebound Mongol bikie was murdered execution-style on the Gold Coast by a well-drilled team, who bought getaway cars under false names especially for the midnight hit outside Bowden’s newly-rented house.
But what’s almost forgotten is that Bowden had been shot in the leg in Melbourne months earlier.
It’s clear somebody knew the former cycling star was going to be in an Epping driveway the night he was wounded on July 1.
It’s also possible that others who communicated with Bowden in the period before the shooting might have an idea what happened.
That ambush came only a fortnight after Bowden left Loddon Prison with much fanfare and a well-stocked limousine, honoured with an escort from fellow Mongols.
It appears that the former Fink at the centre of the infamous “Ballroom Blitz” gang battle at Surfers Paradise in 2006 quickly fouled the nest at his new club with a display of ingratitude and bad manners, notably the bashing of a senior clubmate.
And one bad turn deserves another in those circles.
After being wounded in the leg, “Hopalong” Shane made his way to Queensland where, police suspect, people well-known to the Mongols made a better job the second time.
Fifteen months have passed since the Epping shooting so it appears revenge isn’t on the radar.
But Deadline has been told investigators haven’t put the cue in the rack just yet, despite those in the know being less than talkative.
FROM FRYING PAN TO FIRING LINE
The gap between lawful protest and lawless rioting is getting dangerously thin.
At one point last week, police and judicial authorities were genuinely worried that the angry mob in the central city would descend on the court precinct.
In fact, Melbourne Magistrates’ Court staff were sent up William St to the apparent safety of the Flagstaff Gardens.
Unfortunately, a group of the protesters they were trying to avoid was already there, preparing for another day of mayhem.
It wouldn’t be crazy to suggest that some of the demonstrators had made the odd appearance at the Magistrates’ Court in their chequered pasts.
As it turned out, no one made the connection and the protesters moved on without incident.
BLOODY SKULL VIDEO FUELS TENSIONS
As if police haven’t got enough to do, they are investigating a video of a man who apparently claims to have cracked his skull during an altercation in Melbourne’s CBD.
The graphic footage depicts the photogenic young male lying on a city pavement with a lavish amount of what might be blood pouring from his head.
It is a particularly vivid shade of red and there is a lot of it, prompting some cynics to wonder if the whole thing was a stunt aimed at discrediting police.
What comes across as seriously hammy acting doesn’t help the impression. Some claim it makes Division 4 look like Robert De Niro.
Bogus or genuine, the blood-spattered “victim” has a sense of the dramatic that appeals to Melbourne’s conspiracy theorist community, which went into meltdown with rumours that the alleged injury was done by police.
What would appear to be tongue-in-cheek tributes add to the impression the whole thing is faked up.
“He always brought light to every room he entered,” writes one alleged mourner.
He had a “contagious smile” says another.
Contagious? Not sure about the smile but the video sure is.
WAS THAT REALLY PETER FOSTER?
Speaking of bad actors, the ghost of Peter Foster has allegedly appeared on the sands of Mission Beach in sunny Queensland in the past week.
If our informer is right, the tireless conman has done a Houdini from NSW, where he was last seen heading to court after an outrageously hammy stunt staged by police for the cameras of Nine’s light entertainment show 60 Minutes.
That was last August, when a camera crew just happened to have a lens trained on a short, tubby little man walking two short, tubby little terriers on the beach at Port Douglas.
Two ostentatiously muscled “plainclothes” cops jogged up as if doing a spot of rugby training then gang tackled Foster and cuffed him.
All under the stern watch of private eye Ken Gamble, who later claimed that Foster had been shopping around a contract to get him killed by a hit man.
In his subsequent and self-congratulatory exclusive interview with Karl Stefanovic, Gamble, as straight-faced as any old sergeant giving evidence in court, justified the whole cheesy charade.
He was very pleased, he said, that Foster was being shipped down to Sydney to be tried for money laundering and fraud.
We must have missed any further mention of the planned “hit”.
Ken and Karl seemed sure Foster would be banged up for years. But it seems the NSW courts didn’t see it like that and let him go after seven months on remand.
Which is why our sharp-eyed source spotted him at Mission Beach the other day.
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
Jeff Mawkes is no stranger to the pointy end of policing. He spent 19 years handling riots in his time with the force response unit.
He could handle the rough stuff with demonstrators but recognised a peaceful solution and an early end to a hard day’s work when he saw one.
Mawkes’ team was once called in to deal with some building worker industrial action when he was approached by one of the senior unionists, who pointed out quietly that media coverage is the priority of a successful protest.
The union man then put a proposition: “Can we just have a bit of push and shove so we can get our dials on the telly?”
After briefly considering the unusual proposal, Mawkes agreed.
It was a case of lights, camera, action: some make-believe jostling, shouting and abuse.
The media got the desired shots and everyone went home happy. Some would allege that the acting was better than the man with the bucket of blood on his skull.
IT’S NOT YOUR BRIDGE
Bob Setka would have been excused for being disgusted with protesters who blocked the West Gate Bridge last Tuesday.
A day after abusing and trying to physically attack Bob’s union boss son, John, outside CFMEU headquarters, the highly visible mob moved to the freeway and stopped cross-town traffic for hours.
One of them even had the hide to shout “This is our bridge”.
Setka Senior. might not agree, given that he was on the West Gate the day it collapsed on April 15, 1970, killing 35 of his fellow workers.
Setka walked out of a construction box for a cigarette and seconds later was lying in the mud beneath after a giant span fell. He would later return to work to help complete the landmark structure.
And anyone who thought the West Gate occupation was an original piece of genius should think again.
More than a year ago, Black Lives Matter demonstrators in the United States took over San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon.
More proof, as if it was needed, that there’s nothing new under the sun.
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