Vic extradition refused for bikie accused of beat down

SPECIALIST police have swooped on a rural Queensland property, charging a bikie with a number of serious offences following an investigation into the alleged serious assault of a former Victorian outlaw motorcycle gang chapter president.

Christopher Gordon Field appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court from the watch house on Tuesday after police raided an address in Meringandan West.

The 39-year-old, who is believed to have been a patched member of the Nomads OMCG, has been charged with a number of serious offences, including intentionally cause serious injury in circumstances of gross violence.

Police allege Mr Field was with a group of men who on July 28 this year confronted a 36-year-old man, believed to be a former chapter president of the Nomads.

About 12.30pm police allege the victim was assaulted by the group with a number of blunt objects, but managed to drive from the scene and was later admitted to The Alfred hospital with serious injuries.

Mr Field was taken into custody just after 6am on September 20 by detectives from Echo Taskforce and Queensland Police’s Taskforce Maxima.

In court an extradition order was requested to transport Mr Field in police custody to Melbourne to face court.

Opposing the extradition, Mr Field’s solicitor Claire Graham submitted that her client had planned for some months to permanently relocate to Queensland with his partner of 12 months, who was seven months pregnant, but the move had not taken place until the days after the alleged assault. Ms Graham told the court her client’s partner had flown to Queensland around July 24 to look for housing before returning to Victoria, with the pair heading north later that month, but the move was “not on a whim”.

The court was told Mr Field had since purchased a property at Meringandan West, and he had been in contact with police during the move, including alerting officers to his new address and making phone calls to a Victoria Police unit dedicated to helping OMCG members leave their past associations.

In opposing bail, police prosecutor Rowan BrewsterWebb said interference with witness and associating with co-accused were the biggest concerns of police, and submitted that the police had “quite strong evidence” in the case, including phone tracking data that indicated Mr Field had travelled from Ballarat to Melbourne then on to where the alleged assault took place at the time it was said to have happened before returning to Ballarat.

Magistrate Lisa O’Neill said that bail conditions could be imposed to mitigate the concerns held by police and granted Mr Field bail, effectively denying police their extradition request. Given strict conditions not to contact any witnesses or co-accused, not to leave the country or Queensland without police permission and to only have one phone, Mr Field was granted bail to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on September 27.