The case of the Gold Coast bikie brawl which triggered Australia’s most draconian criminal laws has concluded without its catalyst – a love triangle involving the two main protagonists – ever coming to light in court.
A mass trial over the 2013 fight has also resulted in all those charged eluding jail time, including its instigator, former Bandidos bikie Jacques Teamo.
Brisbane magistrate Michael Quinn, who handed 18 former Bandidos including Teamo either fines or suspended sentences on Friday, said the event had a “profound and lasting effect” on Queensland and the perception of safety on the Gold Coast.
But rules of evidence prevented Quinn from hearing the cause of the brawl, which prompted the former Newman government to introduce a sweeping suite of measures including anti-association laws that now face being repealed.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the case, including police, legal and underworld figures, have told Guardian Australia the origin of the brawl lay in an imbroglio involving Teamo, a former prizefighter called Jason Trouchet and a woman romantically linked to both men.
Teamo himself acknowledged this and the relevance of their prior clashes over dealings with the woman to police but this was inadmissible in court as “hearsay”, sources said.
He was accompanied by a cadre of fellow Bandidos when he confronted Trouchet and another man who were dining at a Broadbeach restaurant in September 2013.
Trouchet – who suggested the group “take it outside” then threw the first punch, later inviting reporters to inspect the fact there were “no bruises” on his face – was fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to affray in March last year.
Quinn, who commended a small “brave” group of police without whom “a bad situation would have become worse”, said he was satisfied Teamo “played a significant and leading role in what occurred that night”.
He sentenced Teamo, who pleaded guilty to one count of riot, to four months jail wholly suspended.
Four other former clubmates received suspended jail sentences, while another 13 received fines on charges ranging from riot to affray and public nuisance.
Gold Coast detective turned Bond university criminologist Terry Goldsworthy called for an external review of the prosecutions brought over the brawl.
“We’re now two years down the track and finally we’re seeing the riot charges resolved with very little result,” Goldsworthy said.
“This led to some of the most draconian laws in Australia, laws against association, and allegedly to combat organised crime. But the event that triggered it, the brawl, was a public order offence, not an organised crime offence.
“It’s all classic moral panic here. We had bikies, really identifiable, who went out and did a stupid offence which no one wishes to see. And then we had a far reaching, overarching reaction that was out of all proportion to what happened.”
Goldsworthy questioned the decision by police to upgrade some charges to riot, in light of the number that subsequently “fell over, were withdrawn or found not guilty”.
“I certainly think there’s grounds there to have an external review, given the impact it had on Queensland and how many policing resources went into it, the high court challenge [to anti-gang legislation],” he said.
However, one defence lawyer with knowledge of the case told Guardian Australia police had “got it right from a legal perspective”, with riot in most cases “the right charge”.
“The magistrate found they went there with clear intent to threaten or cause injury in a group of 12 or more – that’s riot,” he said.
Comment has been sought from the Queensland police service.
