Australia,Rebels bikie gang to pay $43k compensation for revenge attack

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Tony Keim
Source: couriermail.com.au
FOUR members of Australia's largest bikie gang have been ordered to pay $43,500 in compensation after running a rival group off the road and bashing them in a revenge attack almost four years ago.
A Brisbane District Court judge ordered Rebels outlaw motorcycle club members Peter Rauhina, 38, Stephen Hopkins, 49, John Skilton, 43, and Brett Picard, 45, to pay criminal compensation to Stephen Bertucci and Debra Gaye Garner for the physical injuries and mental trauma caused during the attack.
The four Rebels members attacked the pair in a revenge “get square” against members of the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle club at Ningi, near Bribie Island, 65km northeast of Brisbane, on February 25, 2007.
In August, Rauhina was ordered to pay $16,500 in compensation to Steven Hines - who sustained serious injuries when his motorcycle was run off the road by Rebels members moments before the attack.
Judge Marshall Irwin said Hines - who denied being affiliated with any outlaw biker gang - was riding with members of the rival Bandidos outlaw motorcycle club when he was injured.
Rauhina was jailed for five years in September last year after pleading guilty to two counts of assault causing bodily harm and one each of perjury, affray and dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm.
Senior Judge Gilbert Trafford-Walker, during a sentencing hearing, was told Rauhina was one of six gang members who ran a group of Bandidos members off the road and attacked them as they returned from a picnic lunch.
Judge Trafford-Walker, who has since retired, was told a police investigation into the incident had been frustrated as a result of the actions of both gangs who maintained a cone of silence throughout.
However, Rauhina, who was a member of the Caboolture chapter of the Rebels, finally admitted his involvement because of concern for his family.
The Rebels allegedly attacked Bandidos members with baseball bats and axe handles, and a gun was fired during the melee.
In October 2009, Skilton, Hopkins and Picard were jailed for four years after they pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including affray, dangerous operation of a vehicle, perjury and assaulting Bertucci and Garner.
Judge Irwin, in two recently published written judgments, said Bertucci was "severely beaten and rendered unconscious'' by the four bikies, while Garner was attacked with a baseball bat when she came to Betucci's aid.
Bertucci sustained a compound nose and hand fractures during the attack, and also lost a tooth, while Garner received moderate bruising.
The four were ordered to pay equal shares of the $31,500 compensation awarded to Bertucci and $12,000 to Garner.
Any person ordered to pay compensation in Queensland is expected to do so if they have the means.
But the State Government has a taxpayer-funded account to make payments to victims.