Bikies, neo-Nazis and the ‘death squad’: How a WA murderer traded one underworld life for another

Abandoned by his mother as a baby, raised by his bikie dad who was in and out of prison, and recruited into the Perth chapter of a white nationalist group when he was a young man, Robert Edhouse likely never stood a chance at a life on the straight and narrow.

Now 28, Edhouse is serving a life sentence for murder and has since been convicted twice more for crimes he committed while behind bars – once for a foiled escape plot and another for attempting to extort money from a fellow prisoner’s family.

Robert Edhouse.Credit: Facebook

While raising his son as a single dad, Edhouse’s father, Andrew, was a member of the Club Deroes bikie gang, one of the world’s most secretive underworld organisations.

On Friday, during a sentencing hearing in Perth District Court for Edhouse’s most recent exploits behind bars, Judge Mark Herron described a childhood marred by “dysfunction and disadvantage”, with his father in and out of jail while Edhouse was growing up.

“Your father was sentenced to various terms of imprisonment as you were growing up and it seems that during those periods, you were left to be cared for by other people possibly associated with the outlaw motorcycle gangs,” Herron said.

During a major bikie turf war that spanned two years at the end of the 90s, Andrew was charged with the murder of Coffin Cheater Marc Chabriere, who was shot dead in his car in Welshpool.

He was also charged with the attempted murders of Coffin Cheaters Mick Anderson and Kevin Woodhouse.

But the charges didn’t stick, and a jury found him not guilty in all three cases after a 4½-week trial in 2001.

Robert Edhouse was sentenced to life in prison for murder.

Last Friday, the court heard Andrew was currently in a hospital in Portugal, but Edhouse remained in contact with him.

Robert’s uncle, Brian Edhouse, was also a member of Club Deroes.

Another life

Why Edhouse himself did not become a member of a bikie gang is a mystery. He has also never touched illegal substances, the court was told on Friday.

It’s not like he chose a life of redemption instead.

By the time Edhouse was 20 years old, he had taken part in the brutal killing of FIFO worker and father Alan Taylor.

Corey Dymock (left) and Robert Edhouse.

Taylor, 42, was lying in his bed at his Girrawheen home in 2016 when he was bludgeoned to death with a hammer by Edhouse, and Taylor’s partner and mother of his child Melony Attwood.

Attwood was Edhouse’s lover and the leader of the Aryan Nations’ girls division. Edhouse was the president of the chapter.

Attwood and Edhouse came up with a plan to kill Taylor and roped in former housemate Corey Dymock, the chapter’s “sergeant at arms” and another man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, to help them.

Dymock was acquitted of murder but found guilty of the lesser charge of being an accessory to murder.

They were dubbed “the death squad”.

The court was told Attwood wanted Taylor gone so she could receive his life insurance and Edhouse wanted to have his lover all to himself.

Instead, he was jailed for a minimum of 21 years. He will be in his 40s before he is even considered for release by the parole board.

But just two years into that sentence, Edhouse began to hatch a plan to break out of prison.

He planned to escape custody using guns and “guerrilla warfare techniques” during a hospital visit, and used coded letters and telephone calls to plot the attempt.

Edhouse was given a three year, nine-month prison sentence once the plot was uncovered, but the law prevented that sentence being added on to his life sentence, so it added no extra to his time spent behind bars.

This may have been why just a few weeks after that sentence was handed to Edhouse in 2022, he started offending again. This time he was trying to extort $10,000 out of the wealthy German family of a fellow inmate.

The court heard how he “felt let down” after the prisoner lied to him about what he had been sentenced for – sex offences, not drug offences, as he’d said.

“[Edhouse] felt it reflected poorly on him as he had stuck his neck out for him and had taken him under his wing,” the court was told.

On Friday, Edhouse received another three-year sentence for inciting someone to extort money and appeared at Perth District Court via video link from Casuarina Prison.

Looking older and sporting a long beard and a skinhead, the court was told Edhouse was still involved with the white nationalist movement and had a blasé attitude to his offending.

“Obviously the sentence imposed upon you [in 2022] did not deter you from again offending,” Herron said.

“Despite your plea of guilty, I am of the view that you show no remorse for your offending.

“You continued to show antisocial attitudes and to express beliefs and affiliations with white nationalist ideology, and you continue to be associated with an organisation called the White Nationalist Movement.”

Edhouse is, however, making use of his time behind bars by building some skills in the vegetable processing area. The court was told he is hoping to obtain a certificate in logistics and undertake further education.

His is eligible for parole in May 2037.

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