Court hears of consort scorn
ACCUSED gang member Harley Barbaro joked about getting “gay married” and planned to open a lawnmowing business with a friend to beat the habitual consorting laws, a Southport court has been told.
Barbaro also told police he put the consorting warning notice “in the bin”.
The Southport Magistrates Court was yesterday played a series of phone calls, audio recordings and footage from body-worn cameras and CCTVs which police allege prove Barbaro was consorting with known criminals.
Barbaro pleaded not guilty to habitually consorting between July 3, 2017 and May 25 last year with Sonny Jenkins, Brodie Mortimer and Todd Barnes.
In the calls, Barbaro, an alleged member of the Villains criminal gang, complained about being “harassed” like “some sort of criminal”.
He is the first to challenge the consorting laws since they were introduced in 2017.
Under the consorting laws, a person is giving warning notice not to speak with, or meet for any purpose, a known criminal on a list provided by police.
After the notice is given, police must then warn a person three times for consorting before a charge can be laid.
Contact with relatives or for work purposes is exempt.
Barbaro was issued an official warning on July 23, 2017. It included a list of more than a dozen people he was not to have contact with.
“They harass me like I’m some sort of criminal,” Barbaro said in a call to Jenkins just hours after the notice was served.
Jenkins, who was in custody at the time, suggested they start a lawn-mowing business together so they could continue to speak.
In the calls, Barbaro refers to police as “dogs”, “scum”, “maggots” and other expletives.
“I don’t give a (expletive) about these laws,” Barbaro said in a call on November 24, 2017.
Jenkins, who used to be Barbaro’s flatmate, then made jokes about them getting married.
“There is gay marriage coming out soon, we just have to get married,” Jenkins said.
Barbaro was heard agreeing and laughing, the court was told.
About 10 phone calls between the pair were played.
The court was also played video footage of Barbaro talking to a police officer who spotted him with Barnes at a boxing bout in Surfers Paradise on March 22 last year.
The officer asked Barbaro if he had received the consorting warning.
“I didn’t pay attention to it, I put it in the bin,” Barbaro replied.
It was not until May 24 last year he was charged and Detective Sergeant Toni Lewis recorded a search of Barbaro’s Bundall home. Barbaro lived with Mortimer.
Barbaro asked: “Have you even charged anyone with consorting?”
About five minutes later Barbaro became the first person in the state to be charged under the consorting laws.
The trial continues today.