Seven including gym owner and trio of Mongols bikies, guilty of Helensvale bashing of gang rival
Seven men – including a gym owner and trio of Mongols gang members – have fronted court charged with involvement in a bashing of a Rebels member who allegedly owed a debt.
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Seven men including a Gold Coast gym owner and Mongols bikie trio formed a plan to bash a rival who one felt was “giving bikies a bad look”, a court has heard.
Harley Joe Barbaro, 32, Matthew Stephen Hutchins, 32, Tama David Lewis, 40, Sonny Brandon Jenkins, 32, Luke Dillon Tobin, 31, Trent Nathan Young, 31, and Samuel Joseph Richard Pearce, 33, appeared in Southport District Court on Wednesday, each pleading guilty to a charge of common assault.
Tobin also pleaded guilty to contravening an order to provide police access to his devices.
The bashing in the early afternoon of February 28, 2022, was in the carpark of Helensvale’s Iron Asylum gym.
The court heard a woman allegedly put out an SOS to Pearce, the current owner of Iron Asylum, to help with a dispute she was having with Dale Moore, a Rebels or ex-Rebels gang member who was a client of the gym.
Mr Moore was allegedly in possession of a vehicle owned by the woman and refusing to give it back, threatening her with arson if she did not drop it, the court heard.
Pearce looped in Barbaro, who in turn circulated it among his underworld network.
Barbaro, in a Snapchat group message with 14 people, including some of his co-defendants, said Pearce was having issues with a Rebel (Mr Moore) at the gym, and it could be organised to have CCTV cameras switched off “if we want to smash” him, the court heard.
In days leading up to the bashing, multiple meetings were had between certain co-defendants and other people. Barbaro was at the gym early on the morning of February 28 to co-ordinate the confrontation.
He sent a further message to the Snapchat group, allegedly setting out the plan to shirt-front the Rebel and return possession of the vehicle to the woman, commenting also that Mr Moore was “giving bikies a bad look [and] deserves to be ‘caved’.”
Mr Moore was in the carpark of the gym at about 2.40pm when he was accosted by four of the seven defendants – Young and Lewis were situated nearby to mop up should anything go wrong, while Pearce did not actively participate in the bashing, instead hovering off to the side.
Barbaro, Tobin, and Jenkins all punched and kicked Mr Moore, who was twice knocked off his feet, while Hutchins lashed at him with an umbrella he was carrying.
Mr Moore was able to escape, and subsequently declined to make a complaint when contacted by police. A Magistrates Court previously heard during the committal process he swore a statutory declaration that he consented to being bashed.
On Wednesday, there was legal debate over how premeditated the attack was, with Crown prosecutor Ryder Reid telling the court there was “clearly a plan for some sort of confrontation and it was inevitable it could escalate into some sort of violence,” and it was accepted the co-defendants would not necessarily have resorted to violence had the car been handed over.
There was further debate as to how much the animosity between the rival gangs, Rebels and Mongols, contributed to the frenzied violence.
Defence counsel, including Angus Edwards KC for Jenkins and Daniel Boddice for Barbaro, both of whom the Crown asserts were active Mongols members at the time of the bashing (as was Lewis), submitted it was not motivated by “club business”.
The court heard the seven co-defendants had criminal histories of varying seriousness.
Pearce and Young had little criminal history, and spent no time in pre-sentence custody, and although Barbaro’s was “lengthy”, mostly entries for drugs and weapons, it was moderate compared to some of his co-defendants, and he spent 165 days remanded in pre-sentence custody.
The other four – Tobin, Jenkins, Lewis, and Hutchins – were hardened criminals who had all done long stints of hard-time previously, the court heard.
Lewis was a twice-convicted trafficker and domestic violence thug who was on parole when he bashed Moore; Jenkins, on bail at the time of the offence, had prior convictions for burglary, arson, trafficking, and weapons offences; Tobin was on parole after a 10-year sentence in 2015 for methamphetamine trafficking and had other convictions for assault occasioning bodily harm and burglary; and Hutchins had previously been busted with almost an ounce of methamphetamine.
Those four co-defendants spent significant time in custody in the wake of the assault due to the cancellation of various parole orders.
All defence counsel submitted their clients were well on the path towards rehabilitation.
Jenkins had not offended since the assault on Moore, was seeking mental health support and playing local footy; Barbaro had his own business with five employees, and has two children; Hutchins was in full-time employment and had reconnected with his daughter; Lewis had purchased his own gym; Pearce was essentially a cleanskin who got caught up in the offending out of loyalty to the then owner of Iron Asylum; Tobin was in a stable relationship and had recently become a father; while Young had also become a father and was in steady employment.
Hutchins, Jenkins, and Tobin remain bound by ongoing parole orders from prior offending, the court heard.
Judge Jodie Wooldridge KC adjourned her decision on sentence and granted all seven defendants bail until then.
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Originally published as Seven including gym owner and trio of Mongols bikies, guilty of Helensvale bashing of gang rival
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