Heavy Duty Trouble (The Brethren Trilogy)

Heavy Duty Trouble

Iain Parke

With
additional
papers e
dited by bad-press.co.uk

For
the original Iain Parke support club,
Pat
,
and my p
arents
.

Thanks
for everything.

Gold? Yellow glittering precious gold?

…much of this will make black white, foul fair, wrong right…

William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens Act IV, Scene III

You need to remember that changing things is the most difficult and dangerous thing you can ever start to do. That’s because everyone who’s doing well as things are will be really anti; while those it’ll help will be cautious to start with, since they’re used to the old ways
and rules
and won’t believe it till they see it. So those who are against it will attack you with all they’ve got while you won’t get much support from the others, which makes you vulnerable.

I
t ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things, because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them. Thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile have the opportunity to attack they do it like partisans, whilst the others defend lukewarmly, in such wise that the prince is endangered along with them

Damage – précising one of his favourite passages from The Prince by Machiavelli
w
ith the original
from Chapter VI
for comparison

Source
s
Iain Parke’s papers and interview notes
/
The Project Gutenberg E-book, W K Marriott translation 1908

Yea, though I walk through the valley of
d
eath, I will fear no evil.

For I am the evilest motherfucker ever to walk through it.

Traditional biker saying

The
2011
trial of Charl
i
e Graham, Tony
Graham
, Nigel Parvis, Steve R
obinson
,
and Peter Sherbourne
in the glare of the world’s media,
was an ex
traordinary
event
. Over the course of a
hearing lasting
only two
short weeks
it
provid
ed an unprece
dented glimpse into a world
which is
normally
completely
off limits to outsiders, that of the senior ranks of one of the best known
one-percenter
clubs in the country.

We therefore
need
to thank many people for their assistance in preparing this book
, some of whom wish
for understandable reasons
to remain
anonymous
. To them we say, you
know who y
ou
are
, and you have our sincere gratitude
.

I
n particular
however
,
we have to thank t
hree
organizations and their staff for their time and assistance with this project. These are
firstly
Her Majesty’s Courts
and Tribunals
Service
,
for
kind
permission to reproduce both copies of the exhibits at the trial
,
and
to incorporate
transcripts of
parts of the
proceedings
. S
econdly
,
thanks are due
to
the British Broadcasting Corporation for provision of records of their news broadcasts during the period of the trial
and permission to prepare and include transcriptions
of them
in this work
. T
hirdly
we have to thank
The Guardian
newspaper for access to their records and for permission to quote the article
s
included on page
s
3 and 22
0
.

Without the co-operation of
all
these sources, this book in its present form would simply not have been possible.

The publishers

b
ad-press.co.uk

BBC
l
unchtime
news

Monday 6th
June 2011

The trial opened today
at Newcastle Crown Court of the five men accused in the
biker
murder case
of
early
last year
, from where o
ur legal correspondent
,
Eamon
Reynolds
,
reports.

Yes indeed George, the opening
morning
of what is expected to be a
ten
day trial was taken up with jury selection and the five men entering their pleas of
‘
Not guilty’.

Then the
Judge
addressed the jury,
giving them clear direction
s
as to how they were to conduct themselves
,
and how they were to treat the media
during the trial
.

In his remarks the
Judge
, Mr
Justice Oldham
QC
,
told the jury:

T
his case will be one
which
can
be expected to recei
ve considerable public interest and where the character of the defendants and the organization to which they belong, will have been and continue to be subject of substantial comment
,
conject
ure
,
and discussion on the inter
net and elsewhere.

Under the
rule
of law in
this
country, in the
interests
of
justice
, you
,
the jury are required to make your
judgment
solely on the basis of the evidence produced in
Court
by the
Prosecution
and the case argued by the
Defence
. And upon these alone.

The
Judge
then we
nt on to say:

You
therefore must restrain yourselves from conducting any research on the subject of the case
,
or any individual or organization involved in it, including
by the
use of the
internet
for the duration of the trial. I have to warn you that failure to comply with this instruction will be regarded as a serious contempt of Court and treated accordingly, the
penalties
for
which may
well include a custodial sentence.

And we understand there have been
unusual
scenes outside the Court as well
,
Eamon
?

Yes there have George.
If they weren’t actually expecting any trouble, then the police were obviously taking the prospect extremely seriously as from early this morning t
here ha
s
been a heavy and very
visibly
armed
police presence here on the Quayside
around
the
Court
.

Officers carrying automatic rifles stood outside the entrance to the building and covering the approaches to the back gates
. Meanwhile
some
hundred
or so
of the club
’s members and their associates turned up in a show of support, many wearing facemasks or scarves so that
the
y
couldn
’
t be
identified
.

Traffic was halted in the city centre as the convoy of vehicles bearing the accused, a prison transport van escorted by two patrol cars, blue lights flashing, swept alo
ng the road and swung into the C
ourt’s vehicle entrance, the gates swinging shut immediately behind
them
.

Once the prisoners had arrived, t
he gang walked up the
steps of the Court
, apparently trying to enter and fill the public gallery
,
but
the police were only allowing a few in due to the space available. So while some of the leaders were
permitted entry
, the rest were forced to wait outside.

The police kept them across the road from the main entrance to the Court
where
they remained for much of the day as an intimidating presence, before, like a di
sciplined
army;
after one of the men emerged from
Court
,
they
suddenly turned and
left
as a body
.

The trial
proper
begins this afternoon
with the presentation of the
Prosecution
case.

Thank you
Eamon
, and we’ll be hearing from you
again
tomorrow.

Yes indeed, I’m expecting to be here
for the duration of
the tr
i
al.

Thank you
Eamon
.

Eamon
Reynolds there, reporting from Newcastle.

Wednesday 10
th
February
201
0

Front cover

Airport riot

T
hree
deaths as bikers battle at airport

In violent disturbances
yesterday afternoon
which
police described as a carefully planned ambush, three men were killed and fifteen others injured, some seriously, as rival bikers ignored terrified
travellers
and fought a pitched battle in
the arr
ivals hall at Heathrow Terminal
 
4
.

The
trouble
erupted as a group of American men, identified by police as senior members of The Brethren MC who had travelled to Britain on
the direct Delta
Airlines flight
from Detroit
, emerged through immigration into the arrivals hall.

The group had been waiting for one of their members who had been held at
passport control
, but had been asked to move on into the hall by officials while his papers were being examined, said a police spokesman.

As soon as they came through the doors into the hall, they were attacked by a group of men who had been lying in wait armed with a variety of weapons
described by witnesses as
including knives, ball
-
pein hammers
, a machete,
and at least one samurai sword.
Having just come from an international flight the Americans were obviously unarmed and so were practically
defenceless
against the ferocity of the attack
. N
evertheless they fought back
,
grabbing anything that could be thrown at their attackers or used as a makeshift weapon, from steel rubbish bins to chairs grabbed from a nearby coffee shop.

The attackers, whom police have identified as members
and known associates
of The Rebel Brotherhood MC, a club partly made up of the former UK members of The Brethren MC, outnumbered the victims and appeared to have been
organized
to target particular individuals.
Two of the Americans had already walked further
on
into the arrivals area before the assault was launched and witnesses report these men, one of whom is dead and the other is
described as being
in
a
critical condition in hospital,
as
being ‘hunted down
’
while
they fled through the crowded hall pursued by knife wielding assailants.

Armed police were on the scene within a minute of the fight breaking out
,
confirmed Inspector
Greville
of the Metropolitan Police
,
who have responsibility for security at the airport
, but
by
that time
another
of the Americans already lay dead on the floor and the third died
of stab wounds on his way to hospital.

‘
Our offi
cers were confronted
with an extremely violent situation
involving armed gangs fighting with no regard for the safety of the surrounding public, or even to start with, the arrival of police officers,
’
said Inspector
Greville
,
‘
and fighting between the two groups continued for almost a minute after the arrival of the first officers until reinforcements arrived.
’

At this point it seems that the a
ssailants
broke off the attack and scattered in all directions in an attempt to avoid capture, while the remaining Americans fell back into the immigration area where their companion was still being held.

Police made twenty-
six arrests
at the scene, however other bikers are believed to have escaped and are being sought.

Home Secretary to
t
ighten
e
ntry
r
equirements for
b
ikers
?

As a result of the incident, the Home Office is expected to announce a further tightening of airport security. A spokesman told reporters that the Home Secretary had asked for a full briefing from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and will be making a statement to the House later today.

‘
The Home Secretary is obviously shocked at these events,
’
a spokesman stated
,
‘
in the present security circumstances,
an airport like Heathrow is one of the most heavily policed
areas
in the world and one of the few places in Britain that you can be guaranteed to see
British police officers bearing guns
. How absolutely dedicated to violence do you have to be,
in order
to heavily arm yourself and go there with the express intention of staging an ambush?

‘
The Home Secretary has already ordered an urgent review to establish what measures need to be taken to ensure there is no repeat of this incident.
’

However
when questioned by reporters,
the spokesman declined to comment further on what measures these might be, although unconfirmed reports suggest that a tightening up on the rules concerning visa requirements for any members of certain specified biker clubs seeking to enter the UK are under
immediate
consideration.

Bad
b
iker
b
lood

While police investigations are continuing, sources
close to it
have already made it plain that they see yesterday’s violence as part of a bitt
er dispute between The Brethren
MC’s
worldwide
organization
, and in particular with its controlling ‘mother chapter’ in the USA and breakaway British club The Rebel Brethren MC.

‘
The Americans
had
c
o
me over to take care of the UK club
,’ said one officer,
‘
but the local players were waiting for them and caught th
em before they could get prepar
ed.
’

The Brethren MC, as one of the senior ‘one-percenter’ or ‘outlaw’ motorcycle clubs, have a longstanding reputation for violence. The police and some other commentators allege that many of these types of club are in fact in the business of
organized
crime, something that the clubs them
selves are at pains to deny.

In August 2009,
Guardian journalist Iain Parke, former business and then crime reporter
, together with Inspector Robert
Cameron
of the Serious and
Organized
Crime Agency,
disappeared in suspicious circumstances
;
at a time when they were each
believed to have been actively investigating the club
during
a so-called war between it and
potential
new rivals on the UK biker scene
,
The Mohawks MC
. Neither
man
ha
s
been seen since and police sources
now
say that they
believe both men to be dead.