Mark ‘Chopper’ Read’s sister sheds light on Melbourne underbelly

Mark “Chopper” Read’s younger sister has opened up about Melbourne’s historical underbelly and why she is certain her brother was not a snitch.

The younger sister of Mark “Chopper” Read has shed light on Melbourne’s seedy historical underbelly and why she is certain her brother was not a snitch.

Nicole Sutorius – herself a criminal booted from the country over a violent standover – was Chopper’s adopted sister and began running in criminal circles in her early teens.

By age 14 she was a cage dancer at the infamous Bojangles Nightclub in St Kilda and became hooked on drugs.

Nicole Sutorius, younger sister of Mark ‘Chopper’ Read.

Sutorius said Chopper was protective of her and would warn dealers not to sell to her.

“He was really protective of me. Unfortunately I was getting into the heroin really hard at the time and he tried to run around and tell people not to sell to me.

“He stopped a lot of people selling me drugs but at the end of the day if you want to get drugs, you’ll get them,” she told the Felon Show.

Sutorius led a colourful life before being deported back to New Zealand in 2003 after serving time for stabbing a man she was paid to threaten.

At one point she acted as a prison drug mule and had romantic connections with crime figures including Peter Allen of the Pettingill crime family.

Peter Allen was murdered in a robbery-gone-wrong by Andrew Stephen Benn.

“Peter and I met through jail mail and I ended up going to visit him, kind of like being his girlfriend, but he was still in jail and wasn’t due out for years. I was 19,” Sutorius said.

Victor Peirce, Trevor Pettingill and Anthony Farrell, who was charged and acquitted over the Walsh St police murders, also had her on their prison visitor list.

In Sutorius’ heyday, Flinders Street Station was territory of the Sharpies – an old school youth gang.

She said: “The cops would always come harass us and we would always be asking people for money to go buy alcohol.”

Two police officers outside Flinders St Station in 1990.

Sutorius described attending an underground two-up (illegal gambling) school guarded by men with guns.

“That was a real eye opener. I think I was about 16 when I was first taken to a two-up school.

“The movies that you see where there’s a door and they slide a little slot open to see who’s there, that’s exactly what it’s like. It was like a little letter box hole to make sure they know who you were before you were let in,” she said.

“Once you’re in there was a room full of people and one game of two-up being played and guys standing there with guns under their arms and that was just normal.”

Sutorius committed burglaries and trafficked hardcore drugs, with overdoses killing several of her boyfriends and friends.

During one stint in prison, Sutorius claimed she was bashed by a gang of women for more than four hours because of her connection to Chopper, who in criminal circles was rumoured to be a police informant.

“These girls just started accusing me of being a dog and saying I’m Chopper Read’s sister,” she said.

She claimed the attack in the late 1990s at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre left her with brain damage, a broken jaw, nose and collarbone and that her hair and eyebrows were also shaved off.

Dame Phyllis Frost Prison in Ravenhall. Picture: Kylie Else

Sutorius is certain Chopper was not a ‘dog’ – criminal slang for being an informant or snitch.

“I still have never seen anything, no paperwork or anything … I have never heard of anyone doing a day in prison because of him. Nothing at all. No proof of it,” she said.

One of Australia’s most notorious criminals, Chopper was convicted of crimes including armed robbery, firearm offences, assault, arson, impersonating a police officer and kidnapping and had a fellow prison inmate cut off his ears in the 70s.

He also claimed to be involved in the killing of 19 people and the attempted murder of 11 others before his death in 2013.

Sid Collins showing scars he received after being shot by Mark ‘Chopper’ Read.

However Chopper was a colourful storyteller and his true body count has been disputed.

Sutorius is now married and lives on a kiwi farm in New Zealand.

She was deported from Australia under the 501 scheme, which allows foreigner’s visas to be cancelled on character grounds if they have been jailed for 12 months or longer.

She spent time behind bars for stabbing a man in the kidney with a letter opener.