Affair claim incited siege by ex-bikie
AN ex-bikie who sparked a three-hour siege by wielding a samurai sword planned to flee the state with his insta-famous girlfriend who was “in danger” following an online “beef” with another former bikie, a court has heard.
Brett Pechey, 31, appeared in the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday following a standoff with heavily armed Specialist Emergency Response Team police.
The former West End chapter Bandidos president sparked a siege at the weekend after receiving a phone call which claimed his partner Rikki Sutton was cheating on him.
It came after Pechey had flown to the Gold Coast from Perth to help his partner pack in the wake of an online dispute where former Hells Angel Ben “Notorious” Geppert had accused him of being a “dog”, or a police informant.
The standoff, which involved 26 heavily armed police officers, ended when Pechey swallowed so many Xanax and Valium pills he had to be hospitalised.
Pechey, who fled to Thailand following the 2013 Broadbeach bikie brawl only to return in 2015, was charged with public nuisance, seriously assaulting police and wilful damage as a result.
Yesterday all charges were adjourned until April 27 and Pechey’s bail application was postponed until today.
The application is expected to hinge on a psychological report requested by Magistrate Don MacKenzie, who was concerned about Pechey’s mental state due to the large amounts of antipsychotic drugs he took to combat paranoid schizophrenia.
Yesterday defence lawyer Campbell MacCallum, of Moloney MacCallum Abdelshahied Lawyers, told the court Pechey was on the Gold Coast to get his partner Rikki Sutton out of danger and move her to Western Australia to be with him.
“There’s a strange type of feud going on with another couple on the Gold Coast,” Mr MacCallum told the court as Pechey and Ms Sutton smiled at each other from across the room.
Mr MacCallum told the court the dispute between his client and Geppert was well publicised.
In February, Pechey was accused of being a “dog”, or a police informant, on social media which caused a rift between Ms Sutton and her sister Allaina Vader, who is Geppert’s partner.
Mr MacCallum told the court the siege was sparked after Pechey received a phone call which “advised him of a number of occasions of infidelity by Ms Sutton from relatives of Ms Sutton” which started an argument between the pair.
Mr MacCallum told the court neighbours called police upon hearing yelling from Ms Sutton’s house because it had been broken into a night earlier.
He said the home invasion caused much of the damage in the apartment.
But Mr MacCallum said Pechey “accepts stabbing the wall and throwing an ironing board down the stairs, all other damages were by another person who has since been charged”.
When police responded to triple-0 calls, Mr MacCallum said a standoff ensued where “he didn’t want to stab them and they didn’t want to shoot him”.
Mr MacCallum said the police shooting death in February of former Comanchero bikie associate Liam Scorsese had terrified Pechey, who ended the siege, and was hospitalised, after the “excessive ingestion of Xanax and Valium”.
Mr MacKenzie said Pechey was lucky he did not receive siege charges as a result of the standoff.
“Police have been involved in a siege situation,” Mr MacKenzie said.
“Citizens are sick and tired of whole suburbs or streets being shut down – these things cost tens of thousands of dollars.”
When applying for bail, Mr MacCallum proposed a condition which would see Pechey have to leave Queensland for Western Australia within 48 hours of his release.
“I’m more than happy to export a Queensland problem to Western Australia, that’s one of your strongest points,” Mr MacKenzie told Mr MacCallum.
Mr MacKenzie adjourned the matter until tomorrow to give Pechey’s legal team a chance to get a psychological report to determine whether he is safe to release from prison.
“This man clearly has a mental illness, this is a way he’s reacted to false information,” he said.
Outside court Mr MacCallum said he was “pretty confident” his client could get bail.
“We just have to tie up some loose ends,” he said with Ms Sutton by his side.
“Basically the Magistrate is satisfied that he’s checked all the boxes that he’s an acceptable risk, we’ve just got to get some medical reports.”
POLICE HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN A SIEGE SITUATION. CITIZENS ARE SICK AND TIRED OF WHOLE SUBURBS OR STREETS BEING SHUT DOWN – THESE THINGS COST TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. MAGISTRATE DON MACKENZIE