Bikies, brawls and beating death: Shannon Althouse Pt.1

As the former Rebels sergeant-at-arms, Shannon Althouse lived a dangerous life. He was the muscle for the club - if anyone had a problem with the bikies, Shannon dealt with it. From being imprisoned twice to almost dying after he was run over by a car, the ex bikie reveals what goes on inside maximum security and why he ultimately left the OMCG.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The public has had a long held fascination with detectives.
Detective see a side of life the average person is
never exposed to. I spent thirty four years as a cop.
For twenty five of those years I was catching killers.
That's what I did for a living. I was a
homicide detective. I'm no longer just interviewing bad guys. Instead,
I'm taking the public into the world in which I operated.

(00:23):
The guests I talk to each week have amazing stories
from all sides of the law. The interviews are raw
and honest, just like the people I talk to. Some
of the content and language might be confronting. That's because
no one who comes into contact with crime is left unchanged.
Join me now as I take you into this world. Today,

(00:45):
I spoke the Shannon Old House. Shannon has a history
of violence. Does that make him a bad man? You
can form your own views after listening to our chat.
We talked about a lot of heavy personal stuff, growing
up as an indigenous youth in the Northern Territory, the
impact of being a survivor of child sexual abuse, family violence,
drug addiction, his own acts of violence, including a vicious

(01:08):
prison assault, and his time as a sergeant of arms
of an outlaw motorcycle gang. But what I found most
interesting about Shannon is what he's doing now and how
he's turned his life around. Mate, you're a scary looking dude.
I'm looking at your face tattoos, neck tatoos. It's you

(01:29):
got it written all over you don't mess with me.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, yeah, well that's what I get from a lot
of people. Yeah, definitely, definitely that only you know, I mean,
it's have been like that for years, you know, but yeah,
it's you know, my story is my life? Really? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, what's ago with the tattoos? When did you start
getting them?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, you know, it's funny like story about We're not
really funny about it. I started getting them when I
got addicted to Metham Fatamin, you know, like, yeah, yeah,
I never had any face tattoos, head tatoos or anything
until I started using heavy drugs. And then yeah, once
I started using heavy drugs, I was just like, I
want this face tattoo, I want that head tattoo.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
And yeah, oh yeah, I'm true.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
This is a true story. I'm not even lying about this.
I woke up in prison, and once I actually sobered
up in prison, I really sobered up. I did look
in the mirror and I was thinking, Wow, it's like,
what happened?

Speaker 1 (02:20):
What have I done?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. Oh yeah, I was shocked.
I was shocked myself.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Trust me, Well, you can't. You can't avoid it. Every
time you're look in the mirror, it's there, and I
would imagine people react differently to you.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, yeah, it's you definitely see the different groups of people.
When I'm walking through the streets. You see obviously people
that are hard out, gang life style. Top of people
I bore me and like suss me out and try,
especially because if they're from that area and I'm not
try I figure out who I am. But it's like
I've had like elderly and the kids and all that,

(02:55):
like it's weird, Like they love on me. They always
intrigued and like nice fate, nice statues. Where did that hurt?
Did this herd? What's even the kids? You know, like yeah,
it's too it's funny. And you get all the people
who obviously got something or done something bad and stuff
like that that got enemies. You know, they look at
me like, you know, like.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
You're in the area for Yeah, yeah, No, I would
imagine that change people's perspective. But I'm obviously not a psychologist,
but it looks like there's a lot of anger and torment.
There is that part of it, Like what was the
basis of it?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah? Is really to be honest, it's the pain, you know.
I mean like it's when I got the first one,
I kind of got addicted to that, like that feeling,
you know, that sense of being able to go through
all that pain and stuff like that and just lay
there and I enjoyed it, you know, so I just
kept getting more and more and more. Yeah, before I
knew it, and it.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Was it was at a time you were getting it
was a commitment to your lifetime lifestyle. You never thought
you were going to turn it around. What was Yeah,
any social aspect of it, it's almost a rebellious that, yeah,
aspect of it going well, okay, this is the way
I write what are you going to do about?

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah? That's pretty much exactly how it was.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
You know.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
I was part of a club, you know, so part
of the gang life, and I wanted to show it,
you know, so I've got all the face hats and
all that, and just to prove you know, especially through
the interior wherever I was that you know, I wasn't
afraid of the life I was living, or you know,
afraid of the people who were hated on me or
or what I was doing, or you know, with the
people that I was hanging around. You know.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
So well, it's a podcast, so the people listening can't
see but the full face tattoos and neck tattoos. So yeah,
that leaves an impact. Let's say. Yeah, now we got
together because of a mutual mate, Jeffrey Morgan. Jeff's been
on the podcast. He had his life, went off rails

(04:47):
at a hard start in life and spent a lot
of time inside, but he's really turned his life around.
How did you to connect cause I think it's a
great connection. I've got a lot of respect for Jeff
and what he's doing. Now, how did you to meet up?

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, it was Yeah, it was exactly that's exactly right,
you know. And so I just finished doing a bit
of a bit of a lag, you know, seven years
in Northern Territory. So when I got released, like or
while I was still in there, you know, I thought
I need to change my life. You know, this is
this is this is not the way they live. You know,
it's too you know, it's like he wants to live

(05:19):
this life. You know, he wants to be worried about
who's coming after you, who's going to get your or
you know. I just saw the dramas and that they
come with that, you know, like just just really got
to me in in so I thought I practiced and
trained and taught myself inside of prison how not to
let that stuff bother me for reading and stuff, you know. So,
and then when I got released, I started doing like
stories and that on Instagram about like the crimes I did,

(05:44):
you know, the road I was heading and got into
a bitter youth worker there in the Northern Territory with
a local boxing club there, and one of the stories
reached another fellow, Russell Manso, and he shared my story
and then did a shout out to me, and that
obviously Jeff and that scene that and then Morg's Yeah.
Then he started started sussing out and followed me. I

(06:06):
followed him, and I started looking at he's reals and
I thought, wow, I got this. Blake's got exactly nearly
this exact same story as me, but and changed his
life in prison the same year, like same age I did,
you know, but obviously he's a lot more advanced. When
I'm going to follow this bloke, you know, like this blake,
he has got a good story and I love his
reels and he's the way he's teaching everything and talking

(06:27):
about it and the way he's cut from where he
came from to where he is today just spun me out,
you know. And when I was in jail, that's exactly
what I was telling myself, that's where I'm going to be. Yeah,
before I even knew that, those people like him doing
it already, and then when I got out and seeing
him doing it, that's what just blew my mind. And
I was like, oh wow, I've got to meet this bloke, you.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Know, get involved in that someone what he's got. It's
important having role models, isn't it. Seeing someone like with
Jeff breaking the mold. Like if you looked at Jeff's
life twenty years inside, didn't look like he had the
future and come out and he's turned it completely round
that he's living a good life now. So do you
see that like almost like a role model?

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, definitely, definitely, Like it just shows you that anything
is possible. Yeah, and no matter what your background, no
matter what your life was in the past, like you know,
like you don't just have to shut down, breakdown and
think and that you can't rebuild, refix and build yourself
to live that better life, to live life like Jeff,
you know. And yeah, it's he's approven the putting that

(07:26):
you could do it, and so you know, I thought, well,
you know, if he can do it, then I can
do it, you know. Yeah, So that's what I'm trying
to build now, just around Australia and the NT. You know.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Well, we're going to talk about all the stuff you're
doing and from what I've sayen, there's a lot of
good stuff. And if you're following the pathway of how
Jeff's turned his life around, I think you're heading in
the right direction. But there were some deep, dark moments
in the past for you, and we'll delve into that
just so people understand the journey that you've been on.

(07:59):
The upfront, I want to know, yeah, X biking and
a cop. See here, I'm about to play you a video.
If I was your solicitor, I'd say make no comment.
It's something that's online, so it's not something that's secret.
You've spoken to me about it, and I just want
to want to play it and get your thoughts on
it was when you've gone in the prison and an

(08:20):
assault that you committed in the prison that was captured
on the CCTV footage and released in the media. Do
you mind me playing that?

Speaker 2 (08:26):
That's fine?

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Okay. Now people can't see the video that we've just
played because it's a podcast, but if your head over
to YouTube, it will be displayed in full. There fairly short,
but intense. It looks like it was a yard are
in a prison and you've approached someone giving him a
kick in the head and then laid I lost count

(08:48):
after about twenty punches and giving him another kick in
the head. How do you feel watching that now? Where
you're at now.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
I look at some definitely not a message I want
to send to other people. You know. It's you know,
it's a good way about going going about life, you
know what I mean, regardless of the situation or what's happened,
you know. So yeah, you know it's I've got an
extra four years for that as well.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
So right, yeah, I would imagine you're looking there and
even at the time, like and we'll talk later when
your time in prison, why that why that assault happened?
But an extra four years Yeah, it might have he
might have deserved it might have felt good at the
time or whatever, but four years is a long time.
Do you after you do something like that, do you

(09:35):
go back to yoursel after all the bravado's gone away,
and sit there and go, what the fuck? What have
I done? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (09:41):
One hundred percent. Like you know, I was. I was
one of them follows too that, you know, out of anger,
I'd say something, you know, I'd say something in front
of people, Yeah, whether if I'm going to this bloke,
I'm going to bash him or something like that, you know,
and then when that would happen, Yeah, because I've said
it in front of people, especially in jail, I had
to do it. Yeah, I could not not do it,

(10:01):
you know what I mean. Yeah, So that's kind of
the scenario that with that situation as well, And I thought, oh,
I've sat in front of in front of the young lads, now,
you know, I've got to go to show them, you know,
I got to prove you know that I can do it,
you know. So yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
A tough environment it's an environment that's Yeah, you've got
to be able to hold your own and make statements
like that. And we have a lot of blokes have
been in prison and talk about that and the impact
that it has on you.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely it's it's definitely not a place
anyone wants to be, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well, you know, I think people like you sitting down
and getting the message across that, Okay, it might sound
cool when you're a young fella trying to make a
name for yourself, but no one wants to been in prison.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Nah. No, definitely not like you know, it's and I've
seen that the whole time. I've done it nearly ten
years in Northern Territory. So that's when I took back
and I sat back, and I started observing people and
watching certain groups and their stories what they kept coming
in and out for, and I thought, you got to
change it. I mean, even the toughest lads in prison

(11:07):
would always win you about being in prison, you know
what I mean, Like it wasn't they didn't. And then
all the follows that are saying, oh I do this
standing on my head and all that, Well, then why
are you running from the police. If you can do
prison standing on your head, you're not afraid of jail.
Why do you run every time the cop has come
for you? You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (11:21):
I had a Spanion on the podcast, you know Spanion. Yeah,
he was talking about in youth detention, boys homes and
all that. It all sound glamorous. Everyone was out to
make a name for themselves. And then when he finally
got the prison, he looked around and gone, it's just yeah,
the ones with the respect that these old pricks that
have been in there for half their life, and it's

(11:42):
not a life you want to live. But look, we've
jumped ahead, we've taken a straight into the prison. We
better let you grow up. So tell us your story.
Where'd you grow up?

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah? I was born and raised in Darwin, so yeah,
that's where pretty much where my family live and my
parents and that Yeah, born there as well, grew up there,
so you know that's that's that's where I was born
and grew up in the street.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
See yeah, when you say grew up on the streets,
what was it? What was your childhood like?

Speaker 2 (12:11):
The childhood wasn't like it was it was semi okay,
you know, I mean a lot of a lot of
alcohol and violence, like domestic violence and stuff like that
when I was a young young kid, you know what
I mean. So yeah, I remember still remember all those days,
you know, like really well, yeah, it definitely wasn't and
it was always always our house was kind of like
the go to place when people wanted a party, you know.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah. So so at that age, what were you saying?
How were we and what whatty?

Speaker 2 (12:39):
To be honest, as far as you can go back
to as far as earliest memories, earliest memories, yeah, until
you know, like to my teens.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, yeah, And how did you react to that? Like
you you're running around unsupervised or what?

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so I actually just take off and
because I was petrified when I seen that stuff happened.
And you're yeah, yeah, you know, so all the uncles
are punching on in front of yours, you know, and
you use the toddlers and you know, like three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nineteen years old, you know, so.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Did you think that was the norm? Did you just
like that was what life was about? Like, I'm just
curious as a kid if that's what you've seen.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, Well, to be honest, I knew what was going
to happen. Every time they was a drinking, Like people
were drinking and partying, and it kind of like every
place that I went to, no matter what, that would
happen at those places, you know, no matter who, which family,
whichever place it was at. That was definitely the case,
and definitely by the end of the night there was

(13:40):
ambulances and police cars rocking up for some sort of
you know, pretty serious assault.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
You described to me when we're having a yarn the
other day that, yeah, you're riding around on pushbikes and
front rocks at police cars and taxis and that sort
of stuff. Is that, yeah, the type of thing that
you're getting up to.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah, yea. So it was just you know, like all
of us kids in that from the street, you know,
we had all the street kids and all that was
well it was all housing commission, you know. So we
used to just jumping out push bikes and take off,
especially when all the parents and that all the all
the adults were drinking and you know there was our
safe haven. Killed Tom, kill her, bought them roll around
and yeah, we used to to to kill that bottom

(14:21):
you know, that would rock taxis or rock police cars
and try to try getting the police chase and that
you know, I went to try to get chased by them,
you know, right.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
They get their attention. F Yeah yeah, rock at the
police car. How old were you.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Then, that's I reckon. That was even before my teens
and all the way up and through through to my teens.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah yeah, yeah, you mentioned if you're comfortable talking about it,
but it's happened to a lot of people that are
sexual abuse too.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I went through that as a as
a child as well, you know, from a primarly friend.
So yeahs I was getting sexually abused by him since
a kid, you know what I mean. And that all
happened at these parties, you know, so when the families well,
drinking and and having a laugh and partying and stuff
like that. You know, by the end of the night
thereas yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly that's the case,

(15:11):
you know, and you see that around everywhere, you know,
that's that's definitely what happens, you know.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah. So yeah, and it's important we talk about your
upbringing because I've said that in the introduction. Let's find
out about this person and see why you turned out
the way you turned out what you described there there,
there's some pretty horrific things for a young fellow to
be growing up and experiencing that type of stuff and

(15:37):
without direction or that. If your mates are from rocks
at the police cars I'd be from rocks at the
police cars too. You wouldn't be thinking it's all about it.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
No, No, that's exactly right. Yeah, and that's what happened.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
You know what what you got taken away from from
darn was an uncle that took you down to South Australia. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, So my mum's brother, he's a good man, you know,
is pretty successful in news line of work down in
South Australia, you know, looking after Indigenous people down there.
And I was just bluing punching on in the territory
and stole my mom's cart and busted up, you know,
like when I was I think I was fourteen maybe.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Though that never goes down well nah, nah.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
You know, I still remember when my mom walked in,
you know, and you come up and booted me in
the ribs and told me to get get the fuck out,
you know, and so I ran because my stepdad woke
up and he was a scary one, you know, So
I boss jumped the fence took off, you know, and
I was living at bus stops, breaking into the shops,
stealing whatever I could to eat, you know, for days,
you know, in the house like lounge, shopping. And I

(16:41):
was fourteen, fourteen years old, but I was too scared
and too afraid and too embarrassed to ask friends or
family if I could stay out theirs.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
I was too scared too that I thought that my
mum and the old man was going to rock up,
you know, looking for me to give me a hiding,
you know, So I just so I would, I would
avoid those places, you know. So I ended up the
air crashing at bus stops in it for a little while,
and until I met another fellow and through one of
my cousins, and we just went and crashed on ease lands,
you know, until I was at Casuna shopping center one

(17:09):
day and my sister told me that my uncle was
down from Adelaide, yeah, and that he wanted to talk
to me. So then yeah, I went home. That's when
he said, you know, you're coming to Adelaide with me,
you know.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
So okay, how did that work out? How old were
you when you went fourteen four and how that? How
did that work out? You get some stability?

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no it was you know, so I
agreed to it, and yeah, we jumped in the car
and you know, about a week I think it was
a week after and we drove down back down to Adelaide.
He enrolled me into a high school down there, Underdee
High and yeah, I went through a completed year twelve
and that there. You know, I still got hooked in
the grog and stuff like that, and I was still

(17:46):
punching on blew and like back. You know. As for
the street crime stuff, yeah, you know that that kind
of that disappeared when I was down there, you know,
like dropped off.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
How long we're down there for? How long were you
living with your uncle?

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Well that that's that there. I was there for three
four years, four years yeah that still.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, and you attended school, you were going to school,
yeah mate, yeah, okay, so you were looking at sort
of seventeen eighteen. What made you head up back up
to the Northern Territory.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
I think I just missed home, you know, missed home.
All my nephews and nieces were growing up and they
didn't even know my name, and you know, so I
kind of wanted to go back up there and reconnect
with my brothers, my sisters, with the kids too, you know,
all the nephews and nieces, especially after like what like,

(18:36):
especially after what happened to me when I was growing
up as a kid around that area and them households.
I didn't want my nephews and nieces to experience that
too and go through the same thing. So so I
thought I better get up there, you know, and just
make sure that's all right. They're right, you know.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
And how'd that work out for you when you when
you went back up there.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, it started off all right, and then again I
got hooked on the grog and some of the drugs
and drug life and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
I read one of the interviews, and you've done quite
a few few interviews now, but we met and feathermone
the euphoric hit that you got when you tried it
first uff, Yeah, dragged into it. Yeah, what what the
talk was through that process?

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, No, it was. I still remember the first day
I took it. I had a like a good made
of mine. We went for a drive, packed up packed
up in a like in a in the bush and
he's like, can you get that? Get the pipe out
of the glove box. I was like, oh, I thought
it was I thought it was a marijuana pipe, you know.
So I pulled in and it's just this glass pipe
and I'm like, oh, that's weird, you know. Gave it

(19:40):
to him and then he's pulled out this little bag
of ice, myth and like, what the hell is that,
you know, and he's just like it's ice, you know.
I was like, what do you mean ice? And he's nah,
it's like meth, you know, like it gets you high
and want someone's like noah, nah na stuff that, you know,
like I get drug tested and he's like, no, it's
out of your system in a couple of days, you know.
And then I thought, oh, I'll give it a little try.

(20:01):
As soon as I had that first blaze, it was
just over, you know, like, yeah, I just can't remember.
Like the next ten years pretty much was just a blur.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
I've had other people on the podcast and no people
that have that same story. But yeah, you think, you
think your strong willed, you could I can try it
and just see what it's like and then walk away
from it. But people just get that first first hit
and they're gone.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah. Yeah, it was after that first hit, you know,
I just just went downhill from there, like I lost
thirty thirty six kilo, just was getting sores everywhere. I
was just paranoid, wouldn't leave home for days, you know,
like staring at the window for two three days at
a time.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Like you get that glaze looking that junkie type look
about it, you don't you?

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah, had you got in the training and that when
you were down in Adelaide, were you doing any stuff physically?

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah? Well when I was down there, I was playing
rugby and you know, like I had a little gym
set up and stuff like that, so I I was
hitting the gym here.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
And looking after yourself. Yeah, and then then it just
all went skew if when you got the drugs.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah, yeah, when I went up and got on the
drugs and it just all went down here, just no training, nothing,
just hitting the drugs heavy, not eating, screaming.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah. It's not a real good promotion for it, is it.
How do you address that up?

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, you get it, get it high, and then you
destroy your life.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah yeah, you know, like I've had mates millionaires that
own their own bigger companies, like had contracts on minds
and at an NT like living out of the cars
like like in no time, you know from that stuff
as well.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, we do need to get that message out, isn't it?
Like you see some really capable people with just their
lives are destroyed once they get get addicted to it.
What was the other thing you're doing in life? How
did you find your way towards bikes? What what attracted
the bikes first?

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Up before the Yeah, so what happened there was I
was I was living and working in Perth at the time,
and I had a mate, a really good mate. He
was that good like I just call it my cousin
and know, and from Adelaide. And he told me that,
oh yeah, we're going to head up to daw and
I want to introduce you to a feel of my mates,
you know. And I'm like, oh, who your mates? Like
I know they were the White Club, you know, like

(22:11):
we're there one percenters. And I was like, oh yeah,
And I thought I don't know any one percent you know,
And I thought it'd be interesting to find out about
him and stuff like that, and so I flew up
to flew up to day and got introduced to him,
and you know, there's a big bunch of these pretty
big big lads covering ink and stuff like that, partying
and at the pub, you know, drinking up and you know,

(22:32):
we just we just partied for a couple of days
and that's when I got to meet him or and
that was the first my introduction to that life, you know.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
And what what the track? You're already into the drugs
at that stage. I've been off.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
I've actually been off the drugs for a while.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
The yeah, okay, so what what what attrack did you to?

Speaker 2 (22:48):
What was I think it was mainly just like the tattoos.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
And drinking and you tear it up at that stage.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Nah, And I had a couple of tattoos, but yeah,
nothing nothing like how I've got now. So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
So the drinking, the and I hear blakes of the
bening clubs and said, look, it's the good parts of
you're you're on the high, when you're you're riding the bikes,
you're hanging out with mates and getting all sorts of
sorts of trouble. That's the sort of attraction you were
looking for, is And I'm asking this question I'm not
saying that it's a case with you, but a lot
of the blokes I've spoken to have gone down the

(23:22):
path of going into the omcgs, have had childhoods where
they didn't feel like they had a connection, felt like
they were out misfits, didn't fit in, and they found
that brotherhood in the bike gang. Is that something that
resonated with you?

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, definitely, you don't like it. You know, like that
sense of protection too, you know, like you know, if
anything happened to you that you know, or you got
you all the lads and all that, they would just
come come come back you up, no matter what you
know or supposed to you know, So you know, was
that that kind of lifestyle as well? And you know
the how they didn't like certain criminals, you know, like

(23:58):
like child sex offenders, is you know, crime against children,
et cetera. You know, like all that kind of stuff too.
So you know that's definitely all that was was a big,
big partner as well.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, so you saw some some of shared values in
what they did. Yeah, okay, when when did you actually
what was the process of joining the club and what
club are You're happy to mention the club that you joined.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, yeah, I was, so, I was a member of
the Rebels MCP. So yeah, we just chapter and chapter. Yeah,
so we started up and down and I joined them.
I started nominal for them, and yeah, it was just
basically all we had to do, like all I had
to do, like obviously different different parts of the clubs
and that, you know, they've got different ways of you know,

(24:44):
getting your colors and have it. Just prove yourself nominal,
nominal prospecting, you know, for them for for the twelve
months or however long it takes for them to give
you your colors, and you know, just work behind the bar,
make sure that you know, like all all the clubhouse,
yeah yeah, make sure the club house clean, the bikes,
you know, the field up, you know, going on runs

(25:05):
like you always got to be on runs in that too,
and get involved in all that stuff too, and volunteer
and help out with all them, you know. So and
then once you can I prove that and then you know,
all the other members and that like yeah, you know,
then yeah, they'll come to come to a point where
they're just like, all right, well we're going to give
him his colors.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
You know. Yeah, did you did you have enough concern
that that stage when when you join the club that yeah,
the old addages, you're even going to end up there
or in jail. Yeah, but I suppose you've got all
the bravard they at that point in time, and you
think it's not going to happen to me.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, yeah, kind of, you know, especially Daryn, like darn
wasn't There was some bad stuff that happened up there too,
involving clubs and stuff like that, but it wasn't really.
It was nothing like like bloody Sydney or bloody Melbourne
or or Perth or South Australia. You know. So he's like,
you'll fighting more with you like the cruise, you know

(26:00):
what I mean, like mate, like pretty much my own
family and stuff like that, you know, like you know
that's who, That's who it was all warring with. You know.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
So when when did you first get in trouble with
the when you were hanging out with the bikies with
the law, what was there?

Speaker 2 (26:14):
I think it was twenty thirteen and that might have
been two and thirteen.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
I got done for a robbery and company. Yeah yeah,
so I was a debt collection. I went and collected
a debt or one bloke Rode. I think it was
like four thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yeah, yeah, and did that Did you get custodial sentence
on that?

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, yeah, I got. I'm pretty sure it was a
two and a half year with twelve months twelve months
of serve.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah. Yeah, so that was your first stint inside. Yeah yeah,
how did you find that? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (26:43):
I was I was discussing, you know, like up in
the prison in yeah, old Bear. Yeah, so I was
the old Barama jail. So that's what was my first
introduction to prison there, you know.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
So yeah, they threw me in there, threw me in
a block cord. They called it the bird cage. So
it's the walls were just you know those the steel
mesh that they use when they're pouring slabs.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, with the big holes in them.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah. So all they did was they were the walls.
They just welded them, tacked them to yeah, like a
lego block. Yeah. Yeah, so you could see straight through them.
The breeze comes straight through, and you know, you've got dormitories.
So there's there's three wings. You know, you go to
walk in. There's a wing to the right wing, to
the left and wing straight down and then every dorm.
I think there was about two four six eight, ten, twelve,

(27:31):
maybe fourteen sixteen prisoners and each each each dorm.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
And were you're you're in the gang at that stage,
so yeah, they keep you, keep you separated or kept
kept you together. And was there other members of your
gang in there?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah? Yeah, there was another member of the same club,
and they kept they pretty much kept us separated.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah yeah, yeah, kept your own gang mate mate separated. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, they tried keeping us us to separate it from
each other, right, yeah, through majority of the sentence. It
wasn't until halfway through it and they you know, said, oh,
you know, we chuck him in the block with with
the you know, the other member.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
You know other dude, what about with the indigenous fellows
in there? Because you have the high rate of incarceration
up there in Northern Territory, did you you have people
in there, your mob in there?

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, like I had heaps of family in there,
like heaps. Yeah. Yeah, that was if they if they
weren't my family, then a lot of them were in
laws or in laws to my family, you know, So
you know, I was just packs of them, you know
what I mean, like.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Did anyone did you have any that first stint that
you did inside, did anyone give you a wake up
call and go what are you doing with your life?
Or it was just this is a path where we follow.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
No no, you know, like it's no one actually yeah,
honestly gaming it talking to you know, like yeah when
I did that first little stint or anything like that,
you know. So yeah, yeah, they just just rolled with
the punches really and just went in there and done
my twelve months and punched on through that twelve months
I was there, you know, just trying to make a

(29:00):
name for myself in prison as well, you.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Know, punching on in prison. Yeah, yeah, it was that.
I know. We've had Russell Mancer we mentioned there's sadly
passed away, but he tells the times he head up
in the Northern Territory and it was a rough old
roughfold time in prison. Yeah, lots of lots of fights, heaps, heaps.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, it's just every day it's just fights after fire
like coaches getting called.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah yeah, and no punishment for it or.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
You know, you get thrown down. It's it's weird, like
you know, a lot of the people that I see,
like I've seen it that many times where the actual
people initiate the troublemakers, and that they always do it. Yeah,
you know, like they'll come down to the back cells
like separate confinement and then they get it let out
the next day and they'll get shipped off to a
local security or anything. I had to try to separate

(29:48):
the two groups, yeah, or you know, to separate whoever
it is, and then you'd have like people like me
and a few other young lads that you know, like
if we even said something wrong in front of the
office or whatever like that, you know, they would slap
us for and max block for another six months and
then put us on restrictions, phone restrictions, visit restrictions, non
contact stuff like that, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
So, just how long did you do with that stint?
You got two and a half years, was that the Yeah,
two and a half.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
So two and a half years serve twelve months suspended
after twelve.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
When you're in there and I'm just asking you and
everyone and have their own own different things, did you
think at some point in time in that twelve months,
and we know without giving away at the end, that
you've turned you turned your life around in your latest stint,
But in that first twelve months, did you think, Jesus Shannon,
what are you doing? Mate? Did you, yeah, question where

(30:39):
your life was heading?

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah? I did, Like I did. I did definitely questioned it,
you know. So it was the anxiety and that the
things that'd run through your mind when you're in no
situations and no positions in themselves, especially the back cells
and that you know, like and like it's just a
stuff too, Like you're just like there's that million things

(31:02):
hitting you at the same time from all different directions.
You know, you get confused and you don't know what
you know, what's right from wrong. And like I said that,
when you come out from from themselves, you know, because
there's a lot of people on edge in them places too,
So you can't come out and I don't want to
do this, I don't want to do that, or I
can't do this anymore, can't do that because with certain
people too, there's repercussions you know if you do try

(31:25):
to get out or leave or you know, like you know,
it's in any anything and dar on like all the
street gangs and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
You know, I think I understand what you're saying. You've
said in those quiet moments when you're tucked away in
the cell, your head spinning, you've got thoughts going through
your mind and questioning your life and all that. But
the moment the gates or the cell door opens and
you're back in the yard, you've got to switch on
to the tough guy. Yeah, yeah, you do. You don't
give a fuck.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah you can't. You can't show.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
No.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
It's like I said, especially that place, like there wasn't
a day in that place where I didn't well when
you weren't suffering from any kind of anxiety, like you're hot,
you lit, your anxiety levels were heightened. There was tension
in the block all the time, you know, So regardless
of how you're feeling in the cell, once the doors
are unlocked and you come out, it's game on, you know,

(32:12):
Like you've got to walk out with your head held
high and ready to punch on with anyone, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Like it's a good environment.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Nah, Na, it's disgusting.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
I've spoken the blokes in there and they talk about, yeah,
you've got to bridge up the whole time. As you
just describe, you've got to be ready to go, and
then when you get released, you're still carrying that attitude.
When you're out on the street and you walk past
someone that bumps into you and you feel like you've
got to knock him out to hold hold your ground.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's exactly what happens, you know. You
know when I got out, the same thing, and I thought, oh,
you know, if I bump into this person or bump
into that person, you know, like, am I going to
have to punch on? Like even though I don't want
it any more? Like I've changed my life, you know,
like I've made peace with my pass and made peace
with my enemies. Whether they made peace with me after
that now it's I don't know, but I know one

(32:59):
hundred percent that I've made peace with them.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
You know.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
So you know, if I've seen them and they wanted
to shake my hand, right now, do it? You know
what I mean?

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Was there anything in that first thing you did in
prison that you reckon could have made the difference for
you or change your trajectory on where your life was heading?
Is there anything? Or were you just You're too caught
up in the lifestyle at that point in time.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
I think it was my age too, you know, because
I was still a young fella. Young I was twenty
five and twenty five, twenty six, so I still seem
in my little prime, in my prime young adult that
stage is. And a lot of the young fellows and
all that, like, and the older fellows looked up to
me too, you know, because I would punch on yeah,
you know, and I did punch on you know, on
the streets inside, you know, so you know, I kind

(33:39):
of had to when I come out, you know, just
play that same role, you know.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
And if you're on the sets intoxicating too, if you're
strutting your stuff and people looking up to you.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, Like you know, it's and like
people don't realize too, you know, like you've after you've
done what you're done. Like I'm not talking for everybody,
but like I know a lot of the people that
do it, you know, you do feel guilty after. Like
I've seen some of the hardest lads in jail that
run the anti correction system right now come to me

(34:11):
depressed and ain't like upset with themselves after them half
killing somebody inside their cell because yeah, because they looked
at them the wrong way, or they owe them buy
up eighty dollar by for the week, you know, yeah,
and they come back. Oh you know, you know, I
feel bad and you know they'll shattered.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
You know, I've seen that. But the sad part in
that environment, there's you can't show any of that, can you.
That's the thing. You got to bottle that up. As
you've described. So you got out, you're still in the
still in the bikis.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
So I definitely left them.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yeah yeah, but this is after your first stint.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
After the first hint. Yeah yeah, yeah, so it was
it was weird like after the first stint, I got
kicked out. So I got kicked out while I was
still in prison.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
How do you get kicked out?

Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah, well that's exactly right. I don't know. So I
got kicked out, well, I was still in prison. I
think it's because I was a little bit loose to
you know, like when I was on the drugs and
the drink I was, I was rocking up the places.
You know, I'm not going to lie. You know, I
had blades on me, little samurai SuDS and stuff like that,
you know, when you're in. When I was in, when
I was outside with the club before I went in,

(35:15):
and I think the lads who was they all left
the club now, but the ones who was in the
club at the time I was in the club, yeah,
they were kind of on the back foot too, thinking
that I was just spoke going to stab us or
was he going to hit us? You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So so when I went when I got locked up
and did that twelve months, they made an executive decision

(35:38):
to kick me out while I was still in jail.
You know.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Well, I've heard the people getting suspended from school, but yeah,
suspended from the BIKEI club, I suppose. Only the other
one I've heard of is that man Mamas was applying
for a BIKEI club and the biking club Man Mamas
from the Link Cafe seeds that that, oh and the
bike he said, no, it's too crazy crazy for us.
But okay, so your club would sort of distance themselves

(36:03):
from you because that didn't give you a wake up
call that you maybe your life's are a bit reckless.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah, it kind of did, you know, But but I
don't know. I think I think it's because I was young.
I thought it was a cool life to live too,
you know, like especially when I had like a little
fan base. You know, a lot of people looked up
to me and thought I was mad and mad as
you know, especially in dawn and ant.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Like, so's the wild West to start?

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah it is, you know, like, yeah, there's just a
lot of stuff happening in the streets are down, you know.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
So is that it was sort of buying into your persona.
I suppose that, Yeah, I'm bad, I'm the baddest of
the bad type situation.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah, because because I was like real close with a
lot of the most dangerous people in the territory at
the time too, you know. Yeah, So and they were
they were they were looking up to me, you know
what I mean. So and these these blokes here, they
wouldn't care. They'll put them nine straight through your throat
without even thinking, you know what I mean. Yeah, you know,
so I thought I'd been not upset to keep this.

(37:04):
I better keep a bit of stay tough.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah yeah, yeah, we're all made.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, so you know, I'll save me a knife and
the neck anyway, Jesus.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Okay, it's a tough tough life. You're talking. How did
you get back in?

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Yeah, So there's a controversy in the club a few
of the members from down South and that were a
bit upset about them because they obviously they told a
little bit of FIBs about about why I allegedly left
and stuff like that, and I was like, no, I
didn't leave. I got kicked out, you know. And yeah,
a couple of the fellows that I got along with
in the club down Sowth come up and we had

(37:42):
a meeting and they invited me to the meeting. We
had a yarn and they said, oh, do you want
to come back in as sergeant at arms.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Right, okay, describe the role of sergeant and arms people. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, So it's just like pretty much you're enforce, make
sure you don't enforce all the club policies, protect the president,
you know, so you're the president's right own man. Anything
happens to him, you know, like you're the one that's
getting done for it, you know, so you know, does
the basic role of him, you know, like just yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
I see. It's almost like a poisoned chalice of sergeant
and arms now, isn't it. Because you've got to stand up.
As you said, you're the enforcer, so you're going to
be in the forefront of anything that goes down.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, you're the front. You're in the front of the line,
you know what I mean, Like if anything goes down,
any any dramas, anything wars, anything, you know, people after
the club or people are dirty on you for this,
well dirty on your members for this. You know, like
you're the you're the main man. Like to go there
and sort it, you know, so you know, and it
puts you in a bit of a position, you know,

(38:42):
like you're like I said, like the anxiety and that
stuff like that, the paranoid that comes with all that too.
You know, like when you're pulling up that shops at
the petrol station and that you know, car pulls up
and the boughs are next to you or behind you,
and it's the windows are tinted, you know, like you
don't know if you know to grab a weapon or
not in case you know, there's somebody it's like your
enemy or you're an enemy of your mate, you know
what I mean. That's that's so, and so he hangs around,

(39:04):
he hangs around old mate. You know, let's get him.
You know.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
The way you're describing describing the life, it doesn't sound
like a great life to me.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Like, no no, no, you know it is.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
It's Yeah, I think it's it's good someone that's lived
the life talking about it, and yeah, others will have
to learn learn their own lessons, but this is your experience,
and there's a lot of pressure and stress. They talk
about pressure and stress in different environments, but being the
sergeant arms and the OMCG is yeah, yeah, you've been
waiting for the door, waiting for anything.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
When you one hundred percent and you're not the biggest
The biggest issue I had in there too, And in
the end, which is one of the biggest reasons why
I left her, is every single prison stint I did,
or every single fight that ever did I was with
the club was for somebody else's dramas, not mine.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, And I thought I'm making all these enemies, but
all these other fellows are the ones causing all the dramas.
Because there's six foot tall bulletproof and on the roads
or whatever like that. Why can't they fight their bown battle?
You know, they're the ones that got themselves into that ship. Yeah, like,
let's get let's tell them to get themselves out of it,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Makes sense?

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Yeah? Yeah, And then I just yelled, thought, fuck, I'm
going to get murdered and that or whatever like that
for somebody else's bullshit, you know. I mean, I've had enough,
you know.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Okay, Well it came to a bit of a end
in that the offense that you ended up doing ten
years ten years for. Tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Yeah, so that there was a bit of a war
going on in the club against another lad who was
an associate I've asked, but was with another club, right,
so he like, you know, he was ono on him
for years and you know, Wheels mates at one stage,
and he ended up owing me a bit of money
and so I went there to go get the money

(40:54):
and he didn't have it. So he didn't have it,
And then I gave him a couple of chances he
didn't have, so I punched him around. I gave him
my hiding, and then as I left, he caught up
a few people and was running me down, putting me
on the dog and you know, saying you know, we
can't this and that, you know. So I didn't like that,
so I went back, gave him another hiding the next
day and then told him just just leave it now,

(41:16):
just shut your mouth, just leave it at that. Then
I went back and then yeah, he kept going again.
And then another person I didn't even know, but they're
friends with my nephew come and told me, Hey, you
don't know me, Can I talk to you? And I
was like, yeah, yeah, nah, No, I heard that fellow,
you know, like he's saying this is this and that
about you, and I was like oh. And then I
thought I was just going to leave it, you know,
But then my housemate of times like, no, no, we

(41:37):
can't do that, you know, We've got to go get him.
I was like, can we get a feed? First? We
went passed through Macas and went there. But what did Yeah,
there went to Maccas and went down there. And but
what I didn't realize is that, for some reason, it
just felt weird, like I set up the whole time.
And as I've walked in to walk down to his
workship because he lived in an industrial area, he wasn't

(41:58):
in there. I thought, Oh, that's weird. But then as
the sun was kind of going down and I've seen
his headlights coming like not I couldn't hear the car moving,
but I can see the headlights coming up. It was a big,
big road, you know, and I looked. I walked down
and looked down, and I seen his high lucks just
sitting there in the middle of the road and like
facing me. And so I started walking towards him and
done a twelve, showed him that I had no weapons,
you know, and told him to get out the car.

(42:19):
You don't just have another smash, you know. And yeah,
our first gear, second gear, third gear, and just hit me,
just ran me over clean over you.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
And then I remember, still getting stunned. I hit the ground.
He's locked the brakes up, and I thought, like I
couldn't move, couldn't hear, like everything was ringing, but I
could see what was going on, Like my vision slowly
started coming back again, and he was looking at me
through the window, you know, And I thought, no, he's
going to double back and come and run me over
to finish me off, you know. And I managed to

(42:49):
start moving my fingers, my toes, and as I pushed
off the ground, I just felt jelly, like my whole
left side of my body was just there was something wrong. Yeah,
And I coughed up a heap of blood on the road,
and I thought, said, that's my lung, you know, like
something's happened to I'm punched my lung. And then I
yelled out to my housemail's brow so you could get
me to the hospital. Said I'm dying, and he's like no, no,

(43:10):
And we both started laughing, you know, because because I
got myself off the ground, you know, like he's like nah.
And then he come over towards me and I said, bro,
And as I started talking to him, like I was
spitting blood into his in his face. So nah, I said,
I'm dying, bro, like I know, I'm dying. You have
to get me to the hospital. So we went back
to his car, jumped in his car, and as we

(43:30):
jumped in his car, Old Mates followed us, and he
kept ramming us the whole way as we're driving to
Parmas a Medical Center. And then yeah, I thought, nah no,
like it was hurting every little every breath you name it.
Like the man of pain I went through was just excruciating.
And I just told him, you know, like, nah, pull
the brakes up, ram him, you know, so ram him back.
I said, We've got to do something. So my mate's

(43:51):
chucked it in reverse and we've rammed him and then
he's taken off and gave us enough time to get
to the medical center. And then as soon as we
got there, he's jumped out emergency button on the wall.
They've all run out, and I had to get help
out into the stretcher and the ambulance rocked up. I
was just yeah, I was I've never been in that
much pain in my life. And then the paramedics rocked up,

(44:11):
chucked me in the back, cud all my clothes off,
strapped me to the machines, and then we've just paced it,
you know, and they're like even there's one bloke driving,
one bloke in the back with me, and he even
said straight out to I remember him talking to the driving.
He's like, you need to get there, you need to hurry,
you need to push it. You know, we're losing, we're
losing him. And he goes, I need to do it now,
I need to do an a we haven't got any time,
and he's like, yep, just do it, buff and I
was gone, you know, and that's all I remember. And

(44:33):
I woke up and in the emergency department and were waiting,
like getting rushed down to surgery, and there was two
detectives from Major Crimes are standing over there, and they're like, oh, Shannon, Shannon,
you know, like do you want to do you want
to tell us? Tell us who did it? Tell us
who did it? And I said, I still remember, I
was like, no, go get fucked.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
I heard that comment before.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Yeah, I was like, you know, straight out, I was like,
get fuck your dogs, you know. And then they're like,
don't you want to know don't you want to justice?
Like your pop not going to survive this accident, you know,
like this you're probably going to die, Like wouldn't you
want the person who'd done this, you know, getting getting
getting thrown in jail? And I was like, fuck off
your dogs, you know, and so yeah, yeah, you know,

(45:14):
and yeah, no bloody. They rushed me to the hospital. Yeah,
and then when I woke up, I woke up I
was in a crama, fighting for my life. I woke
up with getting chebes pulled out of my throat and
seven broken or broken to every rib and my left
side my body, both my shoulder blades, tore my tendons
and my shoulders and my knee. Yeah yeah you got

(45:35):
me good. You know, three my ribs went through my lungs.
So yeah, and then yeah, that I was. I woke
up an ICU and then we thought it was over.
You know, if the doctor's surgeon's like, no, now we
got it, it's all good, you'd be good to go.
And I was in there for another three or four
days before they took me down to recovery would And
then that night they took me down. I went into
shock again, and just lucky, about eleven o'clock at night,

(45:57):
one of the nurses were coming to do the ops,
and I woke up about ten o'clock because I was
feeling sick. I thought this is weird, you know, And
when they've come in to do the ops, they're like, oh, hey,
are you going to started talking and then they sat there. Lucky,
they sat there for about ten minutes having he under me,
and I just went into shock and I couldn't breathe.
And then they've gone up hit the emergency button on
the wall, and I remember still as soon as they

(46:18):
hit that button on the wall, all the lights in
that whole floor went off except for the lift, the
one to the lift where the surgeon come to my room.
And then they ran in. There was just surgeons and
nurses everywhere, and they're just like no, what he's lost.
I lost about four and a half liters of blood
and they don't know where else I was bleeding internally,
and they didn't know where I was bleeding from, and

(46:38):
so they started rushing me down to surgery and then yeah,
that was it. They threw me on the theater and
I was out, and then I woke up with even
more tubes hanging out of me. And then yeah, there
was a lengthy recovery that one too, Yeah, with the
staples and all that all around the halfway around my body,
our nitches. In the hospital, I think I was in
there for about five five weeks.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
For five weeks, yeah, all right, and that's a precursor
to what ended up doing ten years, yeah, in prison.
So what you get out of the hospital.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah, yeah, So when I got out of hospital, I
finally got discharged from hospital. We went back to my
house and I think I was only there for about
a day, maybe two days, and one I got a message,
an actual message from one of my nephews saying, well,
as I've got to tell you something, and I was like,
what's that And he's like the bloke who ran you over?

Speaker 1 (47:30):
You know.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
We just went around to his house. He asked for
you know, like to get a heap of boys and
come around there and have a meeting. And I was like, oh, eh,
and yeah, what's that? So what you know, He's like yeah,
and there was about you like he's offering to pay
him in drugs, Yeah, to run through your house and
get your way your bed ridden you know.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Oh so it is still after yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
So I was like, oh really, and he's like yeah,
And I was like, oh, I haven't got any weapons yet.
You know, I could barely move. So what I did, right,
I thought, you know, I'm going to go and purchase
some machetes and axes and keep them on my bed
so if anybody runs through, I'm just going to attack them,
you know, like we'll do what I can. And so
we did that. We ended up doing that and went back.

(48:15):
When we got back home, you know, I took on
my back nighttime, so I took my pain meds and
I told everyone, told my housemate, and I said, no,
I'm going to sleep now. So as I've gone to sleep,
my housemates caught up a few of his mates who's
rocked up because they thought these fellows were going to
run through the house and they've all gotten drunk, and
they thought it was a good idea to go grab
all those weapons I just purchased with my own card

(48:37):
to go run through their work shed first and attack them.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
You know.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
So because I purchased it with my own card, that's
what that's where the detectives in Darwin linked me to
it and set and charge me with the attempted murder,
saying that I did.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
It right, and so that that crew that came from
your place, that took the weapons from your place, went
to the workshop or wherever yeah dude was hanging out
and went to do him over or bash him or what.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Well they absolutely destroyed one of the
fellows that was in there, like cut a bit of
his vertebrae of unless I think he lost Nellie Nelly
lost all every single finger, fractured, skull, brain injuries. Yeah,
they really messed him up. And you know, the reason
why I purchased those weapons with my card was simple
fact that I knew that if I tried hiding the

(49:27):
fact that I was buying those weapons, then detectives up
there would have been like, well, no, we're gonna We're
going to charge him with murder.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
You know, yeah, I know you end up pleading pleading
guilty to the offense. So what I picked up in
what it's been reported in the media reckless endangering serious
harm and unlawful entry with intent to assault armed. So
it was like a conspiracy that you're you're involved in. Yeah, yeah,
because you've purchased purchased the weapons a couple of things,

(49:56):
And we had had a chat the other day and
you said, you know, this is how am I again
to defend that. If I explained the story you've just
explained here, and you rock up the court with your taboos,
you're the sergeant and the arms, it's going to be
a pretty hard case to argue. So you you made
the decision to plead guilty to it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Yeah. Well so under the Northern Territory Mandatory Sentencing Acts,
if I was to get found guilty on having any
knowledge that the crime had been committed and didn't notify
the police, yeah, I would have got twenty five years
in prison. Automatically. I could not fight or argue that
at all. And one of my mates actually got that
like four or five years before. So the only way
I could have avoided that was by pleading guilty to it.

(50:36):
So I had to plead guilty to that crime even
though I didn't know that. I didn't even know that
them fella's done that to two days after it happened,
and then before I knew it does flash bombs going
off inside my house, lasers all over me, and I'm
getting dragged out, zip tied by TRG and tell.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Us about that. So you're recovering at home and then yeah,
early hours of the morning or yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
It was like I think it was like five in
the morning. They've said little explosives up to our glass door.
Wasn't just like it was yeah, full like sa s
his bank bang, and it was just I still remember
like the flash bombs going off, and I was like
I was just stunned, you know. And then as soon
as my door got kicked open, you know, I just
seen just green dots all over me and I just like,
don't move. Dome Boom flipped me over, zip tied my legs,

(51:16):
my ankles and my my wrists to the back and
grabbed me by my my jip ties around my ankles
and just dragged me cleaning out down the stairs out
to the front before all my broken ribs, everything, and
and I still remember it from TG had the barrel
of his gun and he was hitting me in the
head with it, and go, I did a fucking move.
I did a fucking move, your dog and hitting me
in the side of the head with it.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
You know, Yeah, how that make you feel? I think
it's pretty obvious how it make make you feel the
way that the way that you've relaid the story to
me in regards to the offense, and it's what's been
rapported in the media, because I was reading the media
reports on them, and it's not this similar to what

(51:57):
was reported in the fact. Sheepe for the core that
you play the guilty. Couple of questions and just clarify
this that the man that was attacked the night your
crew went to get get him at the workshop, that
wasn't the person that ran you over. How do you
feel about that, like he's the wrong, wrong, wrong person.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah, Well, to be honest, when you live that life,
they're living in that house and you want that person
that's in that house.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yeah, everybody's getting got okay.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
So and because of what happened, obviously his housemate that
was in that house.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
That's the rules.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yeah, it was like, yeah, well he's he's a house mate,
he's a friend of his. Yeah, so that's I'm guessing
that's that's pretty much what happened. That's the reason why,
you know, that's the reason.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Why I suppose the flip to that is that, yeah,
why he's caught up in what happened happened to him.
You're also caught up because you're associated with the crew
that have gone there, regardless of the fact that it
wasn't your plan or it wasn't your idea.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly right, you know.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
And so so did you get to get BA? Was
it straight to straight the prison?

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Straight to prison? No bail. I tried about four or
five times just to get bail, and even told my
lawyer and that what happened like, and he's like, oh,
you wouldn't do a statement? I said, Well, no, I
said one, I said, I said, how could I do
a statement? I said, but I didn't even know who
was involved or when it happened. And until two days after,
I said, I still don't even know the full story.
I wasn't there, you know, So how could I do

(53:26):
a statement saying saying you know, like I was this person,
that person, this person when I was at home in
bed all night. Yeah, I wouldn't even know who did
it anyway, you know, but I just told him no
way in the world. You know, you're looking at life
in prison. What are you going to do. Like I said,
I'm just going to plead guilty, like it's I put
myself to be honest, like I bought those weapons. If
I never bought those weapons, that never were happen, it

(53:46):
wouldn't have happened. Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Do you look look the Shannon I'm talking to now,
I'm not the Shandon back in those days. You look
at that and go, okay, well, yeah, I was rolling
the dice. I was playing, playing on the edge, and
something was going to break eventually. Do you look at
it that way when you look back at the life
that you were living at the time.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Yeah, yeah, Well, when I look back at the life
that I was living at the time, we definitely there
some hairy situations and stuff like that. You know, I
thought far outlight, either I'm going to get murdered or well,
you know, like I'm going to go to jail for
a long time for for it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
So you know, we almost fulfill all the prophecies of
you either end up dead or in jail, you for life.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Yeah, I almost did both, almost did life for both,
you know what I mean. So yeah, and I look
back at it now like I think that's just stupid,
you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely definitely
look back at it now and thought far out load.
But but at that time, you know, it was like
even though you had that like feeling and stuff like that,
you know, you just kept going, you know, like you

(54:46):
just look fuck it.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Well, the chat that we've had now, you've given us
a good sense of what was going through your mind
and that the attitude, and I thank you for your
openness and in talking about okay, well this is the
way I rolled, and this is this is the consequences
of we'll take a break now. When we get back.
In part two, we're going to talk about the time
in jail and then was what was the watershed moment

(55:10):
made you turn your life around and all the good
work that you're doing now. So I apologize to anyone
that's switching off after part one thinking what have we
got here? Let me assure you. Shannon has turned his
life around, and that's what we're going to explore, explore
when we get back. And also about the violence that
you experienced and dished out in prison and then when

(55:30):
you decided just to make a change to your life
and how that came about.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
So yeah, no worries.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Okay, take a break.