THE HOGS OF WAR
A moment of gang violence shocked the Gold Coast in 1996 after a bike show went terribly wrong.
THE bikie gang wars of the 2000s and 2010s are rightly considered among the most infamous crimes the city has experienced.
From the Ballroom Blitz and Christopher Wayne Hudson’s downfall to the Robina shooting and Broadbeach brawl.
But one of the Gold Coast’s most infamous gang-linked stoushes goes back much further, to the mid-1990s.
This year marks 25 years since the trial of Tweed Heads man Sean Patrick Jones who shot two members of the Black Uhlans Motorcycle Club.
Jones was jailed in 1997 for the shoot-up.
It was 1996, a year that included a plane crash into the sea off Currumbin and a mass drug overdose in central Broadbeach.
On Saturday, November 9, more than 500 bikies from multiple clubs attended a bike show at the Tugun Seahawks Rugby League. It had been organised by the Odin’s Warriors club.
Jones, then-29, arrived at the club on his Harley Davidson just before 2pm and had a confrontation with Black Uhlans members Richard McKenna and Steve Zarkoff, both 32 years old at the time.
It escalated rapidly and Jones pulled out a handgun and shot them both in the stomach.
Both survived, though Zarkoff was left a paraplegic.
A witness told New Corp how the shooting unfolded.
“I could see what was going to happen. They were going to have another go at him,” the witness said.
“He could see them coming. He said: ‘Get away from me, get away from me’.
“I saw him put his hand into a sack bag he was carrying. He brought out this gun. Bang! Bang! They fell on the spot.”
Jones fled the scene on his motorbike.
Bikies attacked the media, ripping tapes from cameras in an attempt to prevent themselves being filmed.
A Channel 9 reporter was chased by bikies and her vehicle ran off the road. She was heard screaming as bikies threatened her with a knife.
The bikies warned that they would kill anyone who attempted to enter the club.
“Get out of here or I’ll kill you,” one said at the time.
Armed police flooded the scene.
While police initially believed the shooting was gangon-gang warfare, detectives found that once Jones surrendered himself at Southport Police Station, it was something entirely different.
Gold Coast CIB chief Detective Inspector Arch McDonald revealed that Jones had gone to the show, not to confront the Uhlans but his former partner over a custody dispute.
It was alleged his former partner was in a relationship with Mckenna at the time.
Jones, who was held in protective custody in the lead-up to his trial, pleaded not guilty to all charges.
At his 1997 trial, conducted under tight security, Jones said he had feared for his life after being attacked in his backyard by two men wearing balaclavas in August 1996.
Under cross-examination, he insisted he had not seen Mckenna’s face but recognised Mckenna by his build and voice.
Jones said NSW police had refused to prosecute Mc
Kenna, who had an alibi for the time of the assault.
He told the court during his trial that he was assaulted by another member of the Black Uhlans at the bike show.
Minutes later, Mckenna and Zarkoff abused him.
As they split up, Jones said he feared for his life and shot both men, Jones said.
“It was like bang, bang – I just tried to keep the shots low,’’ he said.
During the case, Jones alleged he had sworn an affidavit outlining the criminal activities of Mckenna as part of the custody case.
The affidavit, Jones alleged, had later been tabled at a meeting of the Black Uhlans.
Following an eight-day trial in the Supreme Court, Jones was found not guilty of attempting to murder Mckenna and Zarkoff.
However, he was found guilty of lesser charges of grievous bodily harm.
Justice Brian Ambrose sentenced Jones to five years’ jail, to be suspended on May 9, 1998, with his sentence backdated to his arrest the day after the shooting.
Justice Ambrose said that as a conse
quence of Jones’ affidavit, the Uhlans “resolved to have him killed or seriously injured” and it had been agreed that a “ticket of $100,000 to achieve this result would be funded by the motorcycle club’’.
The case returned to the headlines in 2000 when both Mckenna and Zarkoff attempted to sue Jones for criminal compensation under then-new crime laws.
They were awarded $65,625 in 2001.