Rebels trio Jamie Ginn, Jason Pettigrove and Jesse Copeman convicted of showing gang tattoos at pool party
Rebels trio Jamie Ginn, Jason Pettigrove and Jesse Copeman were the first to be convicted of flaunting banned gang tattoos, sparking a foul-mouthed tirade outside court.
“Where’s the war on paedophiles and the war on government corruption?” Ginn said, declaring he wouldn’t be removing his ink.
“We no longer live in a free country. We can’t have on our bodies what we want. We can’t wear what we want. We can’t hang around who we want.”
The bikies each left court on Tuesday with a conviction and an acquittal over an inked-up pool party at the Rendezvous Hotel last January.
“F— off out of my space now f—heads,” Ginn later told reporters.
Hells Angel Tyson Robinson was cleared altogether.
Gatecrashing police charged the topless four with displaying club insignia or logos in public after a tip-off from the public.
“Anyone that is displaying tattoos here of that nature, you’ll be receiving a summons,” a police officer was heard saying in body-worn camera footage of the incident.
The Rebels were accused of flaunting a club tattoo and all four were alleged to be showing off “1%er” ink, which more generally signifies membership of an outlaw bikie gang.
Defence lawyers argued no laws were broken because the hotel pool isn’t a public place. But the magistrate rejected that argument, her verdicts resting on the visibility of each tattoo.
Of the seven charges, only the Rebels-related offences were successful.
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch called the result a “win for police”.
Premier Mark McGowan urged people not to look at the negatives.
“There were three convictions, and this is the first time it’s been done,” he said.
Criminals who wear their crime on their sleeves
A magistrate cleared the heavily tattooed former enforcer of gang insignia charges, convinced it could be a case of mistaken identity.
Opposition Leader Shane Love said he’d raised concerns about how enforceable the laws would be when they were debated in Parliament.